Migueleño segmental phonology and morphophonology Migueleño Chiquitano (MCh) is an underdescribed moribund variety of Chiquitano (Macro-Jê family) spoken in the municipality of , . In this study, I provide a cursory description of its segmental phonology. I outline a number of important differences between the phonologies of MCh and the best-known variety of the language, Lomerío Chiquitano (LCh). The MCh data used in the study come from the author’s fieldwork carried out in the community of San Juan de Lomerío. 1. Consonants I posit 20 consonant phonemes for MCh, which are listed in Table 1. Table 1. Migueleño Chiquitano phonemic consonants

labial dental alveolar post-alveolar retroflex palatal velar velar palatalized glottal voiceless obstruent p t ts tʃ (c) k (kʲ) ʔ voiceless fricative s ʃ ʂ x approximant β ɾ j ɣ nasal m n ɲ ŋ It appears possible to reduce this inventory by three phonemes (/ʃ, c, kʲ/), which always arise as a result of a progressive palatalization process (x → ʃ, p → kʲ, t → c, k → kʲ) in the environment i_ (see 3.1). However, word-initially unstressed i- might fail to surface (see 3.2), which leads to the emergence of near-minimal pairs like kɨʔɨɨx ‘earth’ vs. kʲɨmɨɨx ‘worm’. If the apheresis of the i- is shown to be a regular process, /ʃ, c, kʲ/ can be eliminated from the inventory, so that the examples above are represented as /kɨʔɨ-xɨ/ and /ikɨmɨ-xɨ/, respectively. For LCh, [m], [n] and [ɲ] have been analyzed as allophones of /β/, /ɾ/ and /j/ in nasal contexts (Sans 2011). Since the case for nasal vowels is weak in MCh (see 2), I attribute phonemic status to /m/, /n/, /ɲ/, as well as to /ŋ/ ([ŋ] does not occur in LCh). MCh /ɣ/ and /ts/ (as in kɨtsaɨɣóx ‘cloud’) are non-existent in LCh due to a diachronic merger *ɣ > β, *ts > s, but both consonants are present in other Chiquitano varieties, such as those spoken in San Javierito (Ciucci & Macoñó Tomichá 2017:41) or Brazil (Santana 2012). /ʂ/ is found exclusively in loanwords, where it substitutes local Bolivian Spanish ʂ (orth. rr), as well as syllable-final ɾ and l: kaʂɛtɛɨ ɾa ‘road’ < Sp. carretera, aʂkátɛ ‘alcalde’ < Sp. alcalde, βɛɨ ʂtɛ ‘green’ < Sp. verde. It bears no relation to LCh /ʂ/, which corresponds to MCh /x/. 2. Vowels Unlike all other known Chiquitano varieties, the vocalic system of MCh appears to lack the nasal series and consists of 6 phonemes: /a, ɨ, ɛ, i, o, u/ (there is also weak evidence for /ɛ/,ɛ /õ/). LCh nasal vowels correspond to MCh disyllabic sequences of oral vowels separated by a glottal stop, as in MCh ɲoʔokoʔi ‘I.♂ heard’ (cf. LCh ɲõkoi), MCh maʔakáx ‘south’ (cf. LCh mãkaʂ), MCh kaʔáx ‘stone’ (cf. LCh kãʂ). In my data, only two roots are exceptional: -ɛɛɛʔɛɛ ‘hand’, -õʔṍpakɨ ‘shoulder’. Additionally, the sequence /iɲa/ may be realized as [ĩja],ɛ as in óxiɲa [ˈoxĩja].ɛ Unstressed vowels may be devoiced or deleted word-finally, though they are restored in connected speech. 3. Processes In this section, I describe four processes that operate synchronically in MCh. The list is by no means exhaustive: some important processes, such as nasal spreading, have been left out. 3.1. Phonological palatalization Some consonants systematically undergo a palatalization process in the environment i_. In this position, underlying /p, β, m, t, k, x/ yield kʲ, j, ɲ, c, kʲ, ʃ, respectively. Some examples that illustrate this process include icakíkʲa /i-paki-ka/ ‘I fell’ (cf. pákijo ‘she fell’), caβáica (/i-i-tabai-ta/) ‘I/she killed it’ (cf. βataβáijo ‘she killed’), tipíɲa /tipi-ma/ ‘ant.DIM’ (cf. ɲáŋma ‘young.DIM’), etc. For segments other than /x/, the palatalization is blocked in the environment i_i, as in ipiɨɨxta ‘my party’. 3.2. Apheresis I posit a process that deletes word-initial unstressed /i-/ in order to account for the instances of word-initial palatalized consonants. I argue that the process is regular if at least two syllables separate /i-/ from the stressed syllable (ʃatuβaxíkʲa ‘I ground’, ɲonokóta ‘I burned it’, ʃanakáx ‘root’, kʲakaʔáx ‘liver’), common in antepretonic syllables (kʲɨmɨɨx ‘worm’, ʃoúx ‘snake’, ʃanóka ‘I slept’, ʃɨkɨɨki ‘my fingernail’, kʲokóta ‘I obeyed her/him’, but itʃɨmóka ‘I sat’) and exceedingly rare in pretonic syllables (iʃáka ‘I ate’, itʃáka ‘I drank’, ikíkʲoɾɨ ‘my belly’, but ʃótu ‘my.♀ tongue’). Note that a similar process seems to operate in LCh, where it affects not only /i-/ but all high vowels: LCh kɨkiʃ /ɨkɨki-ʂi/ (1SG niʃɨkɨki /n-iʂ-ɨkɨki/) ‘fingernail’, masuʂ ~ umasuʂ /umasu-ʂɨ/ ‘ear’. In MCh, only /i-/ is affected. 3.3. Foot formation The minimal word is bimoraic in MCh. Due to this constraint, monosyllabic noun stems undergo a process of vowel duplication unless accompanied by an overt person prefix, as in suʔúx ‘sun’, kɨʔɨɨx ‘earth’, tɨʔɨɨx ‘neck’ (cf. ítʃɨ ‘my neck’, átɨ ‘thy neck’). This process seems to occur in all Chiquitano varieties except LCh. 3.4. Morphophonological palatalization The 1SG and 1EXCL prefixes, whose basic allomorphs are i- and tsoi-, interact with the initial segments of the themes in a different way than other i-final morphemes. As in other Chiquitano varieties, they trigger the affricatization of /k, t/ into /ts, tʃ/, respectively: ɛ-tsoβoɾí-kʲa ‘I got ready’ (cf. koβóɾi-jo ‘she got ready’), í-tʃɨ ‘my neck’ (cf. á-tɨ ‘thy neck’). Other consonants behave normally: í-kʲopɛ /i-popɛ/ ‘my foot’. This process is blocked if the consonant is flanked by i, as in i-kíkʲoɾɨ ‘my belly’. Before vowel-initial stems, these prefixes gain a consonant (/ts/, /j/, /ɲ/ or /ʃ/): ɛts-áʔi ‘my mouth’, iɲ-ɛɨ ʔ ‘my.♂ hand’, iʃ-á-ka ‘I eat’. The following features set MCh apart from the other Chiquitano varieties. (1) At least in some stems, the choice between /j ~ ɲ/ and /ʃ/ is restricted to male/female speech, respectively: ɲ-oʔok-óʔi ‘I.♂ heard’, ʃ-oʔok-óʔi ‘I.♀ heard’; j-a-kɨɣá-ka ‘I.♂ hunted’, ʃ-a-kɨɣá-ka ‘I.♀ hunted’; iɲ-ɛɛ ʔɛ ‘my.♂ hand’, iʃ-ɛɛ ʔɛ ‘my.♀ hand’. (2) The vowel of the 1SG and 1EXCL prefixes is realized as /ɛ/ before /ts/ and /s/, as in tsoɛɨ ts-o ‘our teeth’, ɛ-súto ‘my eye’, ɛ-sutʃɛɛ -ka ‘I am sad’, ɛ-tsóŋ-ka ‘I die’, ɛ-tsɛɛtsó-ka ‘I am ashamed’.

References Ciucci, Luca; José Macoñó Tomichá. 2017. Diccionario básico del chiquitano del Municipio de San Ignacio de Velasco. : Ind. Maderera “San Luis” S. R. L. Sans, Pierric. 2010. Éléments de sociolinguistique et de phonologie du bésɨro (chiquitano). Langue en danger des basses terres de Bolivie. Lyon: Université Lumière Lyon 2. (MA thesis.) Sans, Pierric. 2011. Is nasality an autosegmental feature in Bésɨro (a.k.a. Chiquitano)? In: Cabral, Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara, Aryon Dall’Igna Rodrigues, Jorge Domingues Lopes, Maria Risolêta Silva Julião (orgs.). Línguas e Culturas Macro-Jê. Brasília: Curt Nimuendajú. Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás. (PhD thesis.)