The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

11) Possessed-Possessor examples
s%-kamána ‘antáres ‘Andrés’s children’
s%-c%áwa sqáta& ‘the baby’s tortilla(s)’
s%-pá"ma kíw’i& ‘tree(s) leave(s)’
k-s%núxuti kúsi ‘Jose’s vein(s)’
This word order is consistent with the head-first order of sentence components VSO, although
ADJ-NOUN order departs from this general rule.
3.3.2.3 Inalienable possession. All kinship terms are inalienably possessed in FM Totonac, that
is, they do not occur without a possessive prefix unless an ‘alienating’ prefix is present. When
they are used in a general sense without reference to a possessor, they are prefixed with #a-,
which otherwise serves to derive nouns from adjectives and verbs. In its ‘alienating’ and other
functions, it seems to act almost like a determiner (see §3.3.6).
12) Possessed kinship term examples
kim-puskáati& ‘my wife/woman’
s%a-puskáati& ‘(she is) a woman’
kin-téko ‘my father’
s%a-téko ‘(he is) a father’
Body part and clothing terms are normally possessed; in the infrequent instances when they
appear without a possessor, they do not take the alienating prefix.
13) Possessed body part and clothing examples
ki-"áqaati& ‘my clothing’
"áqaati& ‘clothing’
ki-’aqs%áaqa& ‘my head’
’aqs%áaqa& ‘head’
3.3.2.4 Pluralization and possession. When one of the few nouns with plural forms is
possessed, the possessive affixes occur outside the plural morphemes. Again, the use of such
plural forms is unusual.
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