A Generative Phonology of San Mateo Huave

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of the word-level phonology of the San Mateo dialect of Huave, a language isolate of Mexico, is presented within the framework of lexical phonology (Kiparsky 1982 and Halle and Vergnaud 1987), based on my fieldwork as well as data from published sources, chiefly Stairs Kreger and Stairs (1981). Affixes and other morphological processes are shown to fall into three groups (cyclic, non-cyclic, and clitic), according to their phonological behavior. Numerous derivational opacities are exhibited and analyzed through ordered rules with both cyclic and non-cyclic modes of application. Other noteworthy phenomena include a pervasive contrast in consonantal secondary articulation interacting extensively with vowel place features; an autosegmental diminutivization process; reduplication and infixation; an unusually complex system of vowel harmony and vowel copying; and evidence for a lexical-difusion change in progress in vowel harmony classes.[Keywords: Huave, phonology, diminutives, vowel harmony, derivational opacity]