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Subgrouping of Coahuitlán Totonac1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Devin Moore
Devin Moore*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
*
devin.moore@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

Coahuitlán Totonac is spoken in Veracruz, Mexico, and has been variously ascribed to two different branches of the Totonacan family tree. While recent work has begun to bring empirical evidence to the internal structure of this family tree, there remain several important areas of disagreement, in addition to the disputed affiliation of Coahuitlán. This article informs the family tree and demonstrates that Coahuitlán belongs to the Northern branch using shared innovations and two computational methods. The comparative method seeks sets of shared innovations for evidence of subgrouping. This article presents proposed shared innovations in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, which fall into two sets, one belonging to the Sierra and Lowland branches, and the other belonging to the Northern. Coahuitlán Totonac overwhelmingly shares innovations found in Northern languages and lacks innovations found in Sierra. Two quantitative methods are also used to show that Coahuitlán groups groups closely with other Northern languages.

Résumé

Coahuitlán Totonac est parlé à Veracruz au Mexique et s'est vu assigné à deux branches différentes de l'arbre familial Totonacan. Malgré les travaux récents qui portent de nouveaux faits empiriques concernant la structure interne de cet arbre familial, plusieurs sujets inspirent encore la controverse. À l'aide d'innovations communes et de deux méthodes computationnelles, cet article éclaircit l'arbre familial et montre que Coahuitlán appartient à la branche du nord. La méthode comparative cherche des innovations communes pour établir des sous-groupes. Cet article présente des innovations communes aux niveaux phonologiques, morphologiques, et lexiques qui se divisent en deux groupes, l'un appartenant aux branches Sierra et Lowland, l'autre appartenant à la branche du nord. Coahuitlán Totonac présente surtout ces innovations caractéristiques des langues du nord et manque des innovations attestées en Sierra. Deux méthodes quantitatives sont également employées afin de montrer que le groupe Coahuitlán est similaire aux autres langues du nord.

Keywords

historical linguisticssubgroupingTotonacanMesoamerican languageslinguistique historiquesous-groupeTotonaclangues méso-américaines
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 84 - 117
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2016 

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Footnotes

1

Funding for this project was provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant to David Beck. I would like to thank David Beck for reading many drafts of this article and for extensive critique. Many thanks also to Eric Campbell, Paulette Levy, and anonymous reviewers for their critique and thoughtful comments, and to Søren Wichmann for running the ASJP algorithms on Totonacan wordlists. While these contributions made this a better article, any remaining faults are my own. To my wonderful field consultants, paškát ka̰cíːnaɬ.

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