Preliminary tone analysis of possessed nouns in Chicahuaxtla Trique

Abstract

**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: Chicahuaxtla Trique is one of the Trique languages spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. Among three Trique languages, Chicahuaxtla Trique has the most complicated tone system and its tone system has not been fully understood yet. When a noun is possessed, a contrastive tone on the final syllable of a noun stem is often changed with a post-clitic pronoun and, less frequently, with an independent pronoun in Chicahuaxtla Trique. In this paper, I will analyze the tone patterns for possessed nouns in Chicahuaxtla Trique based on my fieldwork data. Although the analysis is still at the preliminary stage and more comprehensive data gathering is necessary, this study is a significant first step to understand the complicated tone patterns for possessed nouns in Chicahuaxtla Trique.