EASTERN HIGHLAND OTOMI

Facts
Sources of the data
Orthography
Verb types
Verbal inflection
Inflectional classes
Stem alternation patterns

Facts

Otomi is a small language family within Oto-Manguean. Eastern Highland Otomi is an Otomi language spoken by about 70,000 people in various communities in the highlands of Eastern Hidalgo, Western Veracruz and Northern Puebla. The variety of Eastern Highland Otomi represented here is spoken in the villages of San Antonio el Grande and San Bartolo, in the municipality of Huehuetla, Hidalgo.

Sources of the data

Voigtlander, Katherine and Artemisa Echegoyen. 1979 [1985]. Luces contemporáneas del otomí: Gramática del otomí de la sierra. Mexico: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.

Voigtlander, Katherine and Artemisa Echegoyen. 2007. Gramática del yuhú: Otomí de la Sierra Madre Oriental. Mexico: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. Ms.

Echegoyen, Artemisa and Katherine Voigtlander. 2007. Diccionario yuhú (Otomí de la Sierra Madre Oriental): Estados de Hidalgo, Puebla y Veracruz, México. Mexico: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.

Orthography

IPA notation	Source notation	Our notation
NASALITY	¨ (diaeresis)	–
ɨ	ʉ	–
ɘ	ø	–
ɛ	ẹ (dot below)	–
EJECTIVE	’	–
ʔ	’	ʔ
ʃ	x	–
tʃ	tx	–
pʰ	f	–
kʰ	j	–
j	y	–
ɲ	ñ	–

Tones

We have changed the tone marking of lexical stems from diacritics to superscript numerals for clarity and to aid with future analysis. However, since tone on clitics is lexical (and thus invariable) we have left tone marking on clitics untouched.

		Stems		Clitics
Low	1	ma¹di	‘take care’	__	ga	2.IRR
High	2	nde²	‘want’	´	gá	2.CPL
Low > High	12	mu¹²	‘gather’

Verb types

Verbs in Eastern Otomi can be basic, derived (denominal or denumeral) or old compounds. Basic verbs commonly consist of a monosyllabic root and a stem formative, but there are also many which are obscure compounds, and some entries in the dictionary involve stems which carry additional morphemes. In the database, we have indicated this where possible.

NOTE: Verbal entries may also appear with a nasal clitic (at times infixed) which conveys middle voice (used for typical reflexive and reciprocal situations).

Verbal inflection

Like a typical Otomi language, verbs in Eastern Highland Otomi inflect for TAM values and for person of the subject by means of a series of clitic words that precede the verbal stem. Examples for the 1st person of the verb joni ‘gather’, are presented below. In the source materials, the ‘incompletive’ subparadigm is commonly treated as ‘present’, the ‘completive’ as ‘past’, and the ‘irrealis’ as ‘future’.

Note: For practical purposes, in the database we treat such formatives as if they functioned like affixes.

	1st person
	‘gather’
Incompletive	dí	joni
Imperfect	dmí	joni
Completive	dá	joni
Perfect	xtá	joni
Pluperfect	xtá	joni
Irrealis	ga	joni

Inflectional classes

Verbs fall into five different inflectional classes attending to the clitic series they select. Echegoyen and Voigtlander (2007) follow the principles of the classification in Voigtlander and Echegoyen (1979), and they propose seven classes. In our analysis, we propose that middle marked verbs (with a pre-thematic n in all forms) do not form separate inflectional classes.

Echegoyen and Voigtlander's classification	Our classification
1.a	I.a
2.a	I.b
1.b & 2.b (middle verbs with n=)	II
3.a & 4 (middle verbs with n=)	III
3.b	IV

Example paradigms for each class are given below:

		Class I.a		Class I.b			Class II			Class III			Class IV
		‘gather’		‘save’			‘walk’			‘fix’			‘hurry’
Incompletive	1st	dí	joni	dí	-n	yäni	dí		’yo	dí	-dí	hoki	dí	-dí	xøni
	2nd	gí	joni	gí	-n	yäni	gí		’yo	gí	-dí	hoki	gí	-dí	xøni
	3rd	(i)	joni	i	-n	yäni	(i)		’yo	(i)	-di	hoki	(i)	-di	xøni
Imperfect	1st	dmí	joni	dmí	-n	yäni	dmí		’yo	dmí	-dí	hoki	dmí	-dí	xøni
	2nd	gmí	joni	gmí	-n	yäni	gmí		’yo	gmí	-dí	hoki	gmí	-dí	xøni
	3rd	mí	joni	mí	-n	yäni	mí		’yo	mí	-dí	hoki	mí	-dí	xøni
Completive	1st	dá	joni	dá		yäni	dá	-n	’yo	dá		hoki	dá	-n	xøni
	2nd	gá	joni	gá		yäni	gá	-n	’yo	gá		hoki	gá	-n	xøni
	3rd	bi	goni	bi		yäni	bi	-n	’yo	bi		hoki	bi	-n	xøni
Perfect	1st	xtá	joni	xtá		yäni	xtá	-n	’yo	xtá		hoki	xtá	-n	xøni
	2nd	xká	joni	xká		yäni	xká	-n	’yo	xká		hoki	xká	-n	xøni
	3rd	xø-n	goni	xø	-n	yäni	xø	-n	’yo	xø		hoki	xø	-n	xøni
Pluperfect	1st	xtá	joni	xtá		yäni	xtá	-n	’yo	xtá		hoki	xtá	-n	xøni
	2nd	xkí	joni	xkí		yäni	xkí	-n	’yo	xkí		hoki	xkí	-n	xøni
	3rd	xí	goni	xí		yäni	xí	-n	’yo	xí		hoki	xí	-n	xøni
Irrealis	1st	ga	joni	ga	-n	yäni	da	-n	’yo	ga		hoki	da	-n	xøni
	2nd	gi	joni	gi	-n	yäni	ga	-n	’yo	gi		hoki	ga	-n	xøni
	3rd	da	goni	da		yäni	di	-n	’yo	di		hoki	di	-n	xøni

Stem alternation patterns

Many verbs of Class I.a display some sort of stem alternation pattern. Verbs which do not we treat as Type 1, while those that do can be seen as belonging to three types.

Type 2 verbs

Type 2 verbs select a secondary stem for the 3rd person in all aspect-moods except the incompletive and the imperfect, e.g. joni ‘gather’. The database lists all secondary stems for verbs that have them.

	1st		2nd		3rd
Incompletive	dí	joni	gí	joni		joni
Imperfect	ndí	joni	ngí	joni	mí	joni
Completive	dá	joni	gá	joni	bi	goni
Perfect	stá	joni	xká	joni	xa	goni
Pluperfect	stí	joni	xkí	joni	xki	goni
Irrealis	ga	joni	gi	joni	da	goni

Type 3 verbs

Type 3 verbs all have a glottal onset /h, ʔ/ and select the secondary stem for the 2nd person and the 3rd person in all aspect-moods except the incompletive and the imperfect, e.g. hëʔmi ‘look down’.

	1st		2nd		3rd
Incompletive	dí	hëʔmi	gí	hëʔmi		hëʔmi
Imperfect	ndí	hëʔmi	ngí	hëʔmi	mí	hëʔmi
Completive	dá	hëʔmi	gá	hyëʔmi	bi	hyëʔmi
Perfect	stá	hëʔmi	xká	hyëʔmi	xa	hyëʔmi
Pluperfect	stí	hëʔmi	xkí	hyëʔmi	xki	hyëʔmi
Irrealis	ga	hëʔmi	gi	hyëʔmi	da	hyëʔmi

Type 4 verbs

There is only one verb instantiating this type. It is the verb pa ‘go’. This verb selects the secondary stem for all persons, in all aspect-moods except the incompletive and the imperfect.

	1st		2nd		3rd
Incompletive	dí	pa	gí	pa		pa
Imperfect	ndí	pa	ngí	pa	mí	pa
Completive	dá	ma	gá	ma	bi	ma
Perfect	stá	ma	xká	ma	xa	ma
Pluperfect	stí	ma	xkí	ma	xki	ma
Irrealis	ga	ma	gi	ma	da	ma