SIERRA POPOLUCA SPEECH—FOSTER AND FOSTER 5 
2.8. Lateral. The voiced lateral | occurs pri- 
marily in loan words, either Spanish or Aztec, e. g., 
lupuhti wolf (Sp. ‘‘lobo”’), paléna brown sugar (Sp. 
“panela”), ttlin tule (Aztec), tagdlin spider 
(Aztec?). 
2.9. Flap. The alveolar flap r corresponds to 
the Spanish single flap r. It is found principally 
in loan words or in Popoluca words and construc- 
tions that are atypical in nature. Its very limited 
occurrence in initial clusters already has been 
mentioned (p. 3, ftn. 3). In addition, it varies 
freely with n in the sequence of transitive pro- 
nominal prefix plus the benefactive prefix ?an- 
(6.5), the causative prefix ’ak- (6.6) and the 
comitative prefix na- (6.7). 
°ananmatpa or ?aranmatpa I speak with him 
?anandkpa or ?arandkpa I carry something 
?ininXkpa or ?irinkkpa you carry something 
?anakkd?ba or ?arakkdé?ba I kill him 
These constructions in many respects do not 
follow the morphophonemic rules which govern 
other apparently similar phenomena (4.21). 
2.10. When consonants dissimilar in points of 
articulation follow the nasals n, n, and 7, a voicing 
in the form of the indefinite or shwa vowel 9 tends 
to occur. 
{kXnopa] <*kan smell + -pa ine. suf___ /kAnpa/ 
[BAvonilidayl- 22 2 ee /sAnni/ 
[wfiopak] forehead______________-_-- /witpak/ 
[ketnopullieggas a eee eee /ka?npu/ 
2.11. Geminate clusters excepting ? actualize as 
long consonants. 
?ancihhdkpa I throw across (*éih throw + 
*hak cross) 
yormmanak girl (yo‘m- comb. form of yé-‘mo woman, 
+ manak child) 
minné? he has come (*miii come + -ne? perf. suf.) 
?apiéci-hi porcupine (?dpié thorn + ¢éf-hi fox) 
kuyytkma wp in the tree (kuy tree + yuikma locator) 
wattsk large house (wat- comb. form of wAti big, + 
tak house) 
?ikka? he killed him (i- 34 per. t.p. pref. + ?ak- caus. 
pref. + *ka? kill + # compl. suf.) 
ku?tta-p zt ts eaten (*ku?t eat + -ta- pas. suf. + -p 
inc. suf.) 
?anhéppa I scratch it (*hep scratch + -pa ine. suf.) 
2.12. Consonant distribution. All consonants 
occur in syllable initial position. p, k, and ? are 
the only consonants found in syllable medial posi- 
tion. All consonants except the voiced stops b, d, 
d, and g, and the alveolars | and r, are found in 
syllable final position. 
749667—48—2. 
Clusters of consonants observed in syllable final 
position are ps, ks, ?ps, ?ks, and ? plus a voiceless 
stop, an affricate, a nasal, or the semivowel y. 
The clusters kw, kr, and tr are the only observed 
cases of syllable initial clusters. 
Consonants in word initial and final position 
follow syllabic rules except that b, d, g, and y are 
not found initially. Word medial clusters do not 
consist of more than four consonants, and of these 
never more than three are in the same syllable. 
Permissible patterns for word medial clusters are 
-VC.CV-, -VCC.CV-, -VCCC.CV-, and -VC.CCV-. 
Word medial geminate clusters of consonants 
may be formed by the voiceless stops, the nasals 
(except for y), and by h, é, 8, and y. 
3. VOWELS 
3.1. Vowel phonemes occur in two qualities, 
long and short. The distinctiveness of length as 
a phonemic feature of the vowel is shown by such 
minimal pairs as pok gourd container and po‘k 
cornstalk, ?akpak a species of tree and ?a:kpak 
cheek bone, kanné? it has ripened and kanné? he 
was afraid, misi cat and mii Oaxaqueno (from 
““Mixe’’). 
Vowel length varies considerably as the result 
of stress shifts (1.6) and morphophonemic changes 
(4.18). Because of the relatively few minimal 
pairs encountered it was not possible in most 
cases to subject words characterized by absolutely 
defined vowel length to tests which would have 
determined the behavior of the length aspect of 
vowels under varying conditions. In some cases, 
doubtless, words we have written with a long vowel 
actually represent short vowels recorded in con- 
texts in which they appeared in a lengthened 
form, and vice versa. Admittedly our notes leave 
much to be desired on this very important point. 
3.2. Popoluca vowels may be represented pho- 
nemically as follows: 
al u, wv 
e, e Ay 
a, a 0, 0 
3.3. iand i: are high, front, rather close. They 
vary to open when syllable medial in checked 
syllables preceding nasals and §, or when preceded 
by p or ? and followed by k. 
*?if be, pf'nah horse fly, piStak flea, *?i°8 see, 
pikSi bow, ?ikké- he made him sit down 
