Xicotepec de Juárez Totonac

Last updated: 2020-02-07

SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: correspondences between graphemes and phonemes are somewhat unclear; phonological analysis of the language within the acquired documentation was lacking

Background

Language Family: Totonacan / Totonac

• This dialect of Totonac is spoken in the Puebla state of Mexico.

Phonology

Consonants

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	p	t			k	q	ʔ
Affricates		ts tɬ	tʃ
Fricatives		s ɬ	ʃ				h
Nasals	m	n
Approximants	w	l		j
Note: The alveolar affricate and fricative on the right are lateral.

Vowels

• Vowel length is contrastive (Reid and Bishop 1974, 17:6). Long vowels are indicated by a macron (¯).

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Alphabet

• ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨rr⟩, ⟨v⟩, and ⟨z⟩ appear in Spanish loanwords (Reid and Bishop 1974, 17:6).
• There is some ambiguity in terms of the transcription, given that the correspondences weren’t exactly clear. I have opted to classify this language as compromised, given that I am not 100% certain on the transcription.

Grapheme	Phoneme
a	/a/
c	/k/
e	/e/
i	/i/
j	/h/
k	/q/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
o	/o/
p	/p/
s	/s/
t	/t/
u	/u/
x	/ʃ/
y	/j/
’	/ʔ/
Digraph
ch	/tʃ/
hu	/w/
lh	/ɬ/
qu	/k/
tl	/tɬ/
tz	/ts/

Lenition Rules

• In other dialects of Totonac (e.g. Misantla) it’s found that (MacKay 1994, 374–76):
  • Voiceless stops and affricates may become voiced between voiced consonants.
  • /q/ may spirantize following vowels.
    
• NB: It is unclear whether the same processes are observed in the dialect under analysis.

Misc. Rules

• In other dialects of Totonac (eg. Misantla), /n/ assimilates in place to following consonants (MacKay 1994, 380).

References

MacKay, Carolyn J. 1994. “A Sketch of Misantla Totonac Phonology.” International Journal of American Linguistics.

Reid, Aileen A., and Ruth G. Bishop. 1974. Diccionario Totonaco de Xicotepec de Juárez, Puebla: Totonaco-Castellano, Castellano-Totonaco. Vol. 17. Serie de Vocabularios Y Diccionarios Indígenas “Mariano Silva Y Aceves”. México, D.F.: Mexico: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.