Proto-Totonacan or Proto-Totonac-Tepehua (abbreviated PTn or PTT) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Totonacan languages of Mexico. It was first reconstructed using comparative methods in 1953 by Evangelina Arana Osnaya.[1] Some linguists[a] have proposed a link between the Totonacan and Mixe–Zoque language families; therefore making Proto-Totonacan a sister language of Proto-Mixe–Zoque and descendant of Proto-Totozoquean.[2]
| Proto-Totonacan (PTn) | |
|---|---|
| Proto-Totonac-Tepehua (PTT) | |
| Reconstruction of | Totonacan languages |
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t | ts | tɬ | tʃ | k | q | (ʔ) |
| ejective | (pʼ) | (tʼ) | (tsʼ) | (tɬʼ) | (tʃʼ) | (kʼ) | (qʼ) | ||
| Fricative | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | (h) | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||||
- Notes
- MacKay and Trechsel (2018) add ejective stops and affricates.[3]
- Davletshin (2008) and Brown et al. (2011) add /ʔ/ and /h/.[4][2] MacKay and Trechsel (2018) accept /ʔ/ but reject /h/.[3]
Vowels
edit| plain | laryngealized | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | ||
| Close | i iː | u uː | ḭ ḭː | ṵ ṵː | |||
| Open | a aː | a̰ a̰ː | |||||
- Notes
- Brown et al. (2011) accept this vowel inventory.[2]
- MacKay and Trechsel (2018) reject laryngealized vowels in Proto-Totonacan. They argue that laryngealized vowels in the Totonac languages are too infrequent and erratic after fricatives and sonorants to support their reconstruction.[3]
Lexicon
editThe following Proto-Totonac-Tepehua reconstructions are from MacKay and Trechsel (2018).[3]
no. gloss Proto-Totonac-Tepehua 1 ‘spicy’ *ɬkaka 2 ‘ash(es)’ *ɬk’ak’a 3 ‘dances’ *ƛ’ii-ya 4 ‘vomits’ *p’aƛ’an-ya 5 ‘ear of corn’ *ƛ’aqƛ’a 6 ‘counts’ *puuƛ’aq’i-ya 7 ‘walks’ *ƛ’aawan-ya 8 ‘pot’, ‘pitcher’ *ƛ’amank 9 ‘bends’, ‘breaks’, ‘twists’ *taƛ’aq’i-ya 10 ‘ripe’, ‘mature’ *k’aƛa’ 11 ‘wins’, ‘earns’ *ƛaha-ya 12 ‘tires’, ‘gets tired’ *ƛaqwan-ya 13 ‘talks to X’, ‘greets X’ šaqaƛii-ya 14 ‘makes’, ‘does’ *ƛawa-ya 15 ‘avocado tree’ *kukaƛiiɬi 16 ‘nettle’ *qahni 17 ‘lime (mineral)’ *qaštah 18 ‘dust’, ‘powder’ *puqšni 19 ‘flea’ *aq¢’iis 20 ‘wasp’ *qalaati 21 ‘turtle’ *qahin 22 ‘knee’ *¢uqutni 23 ‘tomato’ *paqɬča 24 ‘plays’ qamaanan-ya 25 ‘whistles’ *squli-ya 26 ‘infant’, ‘baby’ *sq’at’a 27 ‘heron’ *luuq’u 28 ‘tongue’ *siimaq’aati 29 ‘egg’ *q’aɬwaati 30 ‘yucca’ *q’ušq’ihu 31 ‘gourd’ *q’aaši 32 ‘washes X’ *č’aq’aa-ya 33 ‘salty’ *sq’uq’u 34 ‘steals’, ‘steals X’ *q’aɬa- 35 ‘remembers’, ‘remembers X’ *paastak’-ya 36 ‘piles X up’ *maast’uq’-ya 37 ‘drinks’, ‘drinks X’ *q’ut’-ya 38 ‘hears’, ‘hears X’ *qašmat’-ya 39 ‘returns’ *tasp’it’-ya 40 ‘cuts X’ *sit’-ya 41 ‘squeezes X’ *č’it’-ya 42 ‘unties X’ *škut’-ya 43 ‘picks X up’ *sak’-ya 44 ‘writes’, ‘writes X’ *¢’uq’-ya 45 ‘foam’ *puputi 46 ‘neck-related (body-part prefix)’ *piš- 47 ‘pig’ *p’ašni 48 ‘cuts X’ *p’uš-ya 49 ‘louse’ *skaata 50 ‘sleeps’ *ɬtata-ya 51 ‘two’ *-t’uy 52 ‘sells X’ *st’aa-ya 53 ‘mouth’ *kiɬni 54 ‘hand-related (body-part prefix)’ *maka- 55 ‘knows X’ *k’a¢ii-ya 56 ‘year’ *k’aata 57 ‘tooth-related (body-part prefix)’ *ta¢a- 58 ‘breast’ *¢’ík’iiti 59 ‘stone’ *čiwiš 60 ‘sugar cane’ *č’ankati 61 ‘rain’ *saʔiini 62 ‘blows X’ *sunu-ya 63 ‘sweet’ *saqsi(ʔ) 64 ‘bitter’ *suuni 65 ‘eats’ *wahin-ya 66 ‘is lying down’, ‘is supine’ *maa-ɬi 67 ‘lizard’ *slul 68 ‘is seated’ *wii-ɬi 69 ‘liver’ *ɬwak’ak’a 70 ‘throws X’, ‘throws X away’ *maq’an-ya
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Belmar 1910; Whorf 1935; McQuown 1942, 1956; Witkowski & Brown 1978; Greenberg 1987; Campbell 1997; Brown et al. 2011, among others
References
edit
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Totonacan reconstructions
- ^ a b c Arana Osnaya, Evangelina (1953). "Reconstrucción del protototonaco. Huastecos, Totonacos y sus vecinos". Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos (in Spanish). 23: 123–130.
- ^ a b c Brown, Cecil H., David Beck, Grzegorz Kondrak, James K. Watters, and Søren Wichmann (2011). "Totozoquean". International Journal of American Linguistics. 77 (2): 323–372. doi:10.1086/660972. S2CID 224807468.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d MacKay, Carolyn J.; Trechsel, Frank (2018). "An alternative reconstruction of Proto-Totonac-Tepehua". International Journal of American Linguistics. 84 (1). The University of Chicago: 51–92. doi:10.1086/694609. S2CID 148972240.
- ^ Davletshin, A. (2008). Classification of the Totonacan languages. Paper read at the conference "Проблемы изучения дальнего родства языков (к 55-летию С. А. Старостина)" Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, 25–28 March 2008.