Phonotactics

Syllables are typically of the shape (C)V with an optional onset, and in coda position only laryngeal elements and in some languages a nasal consonant. The only initial consonant clusters to occur consist of one of the laryngeal elements ʔ and h followed by a voiced consonant,^[6] which in some languages are analyzed as preglottalized or voiceless continuants.^[7]: 57 In some Chinantecan languages, both pre- and post-nuclear glides may combine with the nucleus to form large inventories of diphthongs and triphthongs.^{[7]: 88–99 [8]: 16–20}

Roots are predominantly monosyllabic,^[6] as fully inflected words often are as well, although there also exist polysyllabic roots, in some cases possibly reflecting fossilized classifiers,^{[7]: 100-101} and roots of up to 4 syllables are reported in Spanish borrowings.^[8]: 29

There is typically a set of nasal vowels, a binary length contrast,^[6] and in some languages a number of contrastive phonation types,^{[7]: 80–84} which in stressed syllables may potentially all co-occur and cross-classify with tone and ballisticity, generating an extremely large number of contrasting syllable nuclei for a given vowel quality.^[6]

Stress and ballisticity

Roots in Chinantecan languages are obligatorily stressed,^[6] and stress typically falls on the final syllable of the root.^{[9]: 77 [8]: 13} Often only stressed syllables display the full range of phonological contrasts, and in some languages there may be a tendency to disallow complex tones and codas in non-stressed syllables.^[8]: 14

Within stressed syllables, many Chinantecan languages have been analyzed as exhibiting a distinction, also observed in the distantly related Amuzgoan languages,^[10] between ballistic stress, characterized by an "initial surge and rapid decay of intensity" and shorter duration among other features, and controlled stress, which "exhibit no such initial surge of intensity, displaying a more evenly controlled decrease of intensity" and are generally longer.^{[6][11][12][13]} There is variation in the phonetic realization of ballisticity among Chinantecan languages which are thought to exhibit the contrast, and in others, the typical phonetic correlates of ballisticity are not observed, and the distinction is instead analyzed as being purely tonal ^[9]: 77 or one of vowel length.^{[14]: 137–138}

Tone

All Chinantecan languages are tonal. Some, such as Usila Chinantec and Ojitlán Chinantec, have five register tones (in addition to contour tones), with the extreme tones deriving historically from ballistic syllables,^[15] while San Juan Quiotepec Chinantec has been analyzed as contrasting 6 level tones,^{[14]: 168–185} and 6 contour tones comprising 3 falling and 3 rising contours.^{[14]: 186–188}

Syntax

Chinantecan languages have VSO as their unmarked word order, with focused constituents typically being able to be fronted before the verb, and are strongly head-initial, as is the case for most Otomanguean languages.^[6] The following examples from San Juan Quiotepec Chinantec demonstrate basic word order facts:^[7]: 11

In Lealao Chinantec, however, default word order in transitive sentences with non-pronominal subjects is VOS:^{[18]: 38–39}

Example phrase:

ca¹-dsén¹=jni chi³ chieh³

‘I pulled out the hen (from the box).^[17]: 52

The parts of this sentence are: ca¹ a prefix which marks the past tense, dsén¹ which is the verb stem meaning "to pull out an animate object", the suffix -jni referring to the first person, the noun classifier chi³ and the noun chieh³ meaning chicken.

Animacy

Chinantecan languages group nouns into one of two genders based on animacy. Animals, humans, and some natural phenomena such as thunder or stars which are considered spirits in Chinantec mythology are animate, while plants and body parts are inanimate. Animacy is not overtly marked on the noun itself, but adjectives, demonstratives, quantifiers, numerals, and in some languages relativizers agree with the noun they modify in animacy.^{[19]: 3 [8]: 234} In most languages, the reflex of the marker of animate gender involves a nasal element, either nasalization of the stem, or a postvocalic nasal, for which reason Rensch (1989) reconstructs *-ŋ as the proto-Chinantecan marker of animacy. In some languages, however, "the marker is primarily a high front vowel or palatal semivowel," thought to be either cognate with^[20]: 70 or synchronically identical to a 3rd person marker descended from *-i, "but in every case there is some involvement of nasalization," and in other languages, both occur, either together or in complementary distribution.^[5]: 22-23 Furthermore, in some languages, animacy agreement with nouns may be marked by changes in tone and stress, stem apophony, and even suppletion.^[20]: 7

Verbs agree with one of their core arguments in animacy as well, following an ergative pattern where intransitive verbs agree with the subject, and transitive verbs agree with the patient. Verbs thus fall into one of at least 4 transitivity-animacy classes, conventionally labelled ii (Inanimate Intransitive), ai (Animate Intransitive), ti (Transitive Inanimate), and ta (Transitive Animate), in a scheme like the one used for the Algonquian languages.^[18]: 24 The following examples from Tepetotula Chinantec demonstrate the 4 agreement patterns with the verbs stand (ii), stand (ai), leave (ti), leave (ta). Note the presence of nasalization and differing vowel quality in the animate verb stems.^{[21]: 23–24}

Verbs

Verbs in Chinantecan languages have the following structure:

1. a number of prefixes which typically co-occur in a fixed order; express categories such as tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, movement, and posture;^{[8]: 157–159} and select for only certain tense-aspect forms of the stem;
2. an obligatory stem, which inflects for 4 core persons (1sg, 1pl, 2, 3) and a number of tense, aspect, and motion categories through a combination of tone, vowel length, ballisticity, glottal coda, and ablaut, the last of which is thought to reflect the alternation between the proto-Chinantecan palatal and non-palatal vowel series;^{[5]: 21–22}
3. suffixes or enclitics which mark certain grammatical persons not distinguished by tone and other internal changes in the verb stem, typically 2pl, 3pl, and clusivity distinctions in the first-person plural. In some languages, postposed free-standing pronouns are instead used.^{[5]: 27–28}

In summary, the full range of tense-aspect-mood distinctions in a language is expressed by the tense-aspect series of the stem in combination with its prefixes, and person by the person series of the stem in combination with its suffixes or free-standing pronouns.

While the shape of the stem used for a given combination of person and tense-aspect-mood may appear unpredictable, "starting from Merrifield (1968), the existing descriptive tradition of Chinantecan languages from the SIL suggests that the entire paradigm of a verb is retrievable from the inflectional information provided by only 12 cells," which represent the product of the 4 core persons, and 3 core tense-aspect categories, termed Progressive, Intentive, and Completive (alternatively Present, Future, and Past, respectively). The form of the stem used for categories beyond the 3 core tense-aspects is thus predictable from one of the 12 forms.^[2]: 4