Revisiting the complexity of the Chinantecan verb conjugation classes

In this paper, I study the inflectional properties of verbs in TCh in detail from a sample of 790 verbs collected from Merrifield and Anderson (2007). I analyze the interaction of inflectional exponents of grammatical person in creating the contrasts that build the different conjugation classes. Taking this perspective favors the observation of valuable generalizations of the inflectional system as first described in Merrifield (1968). I introduce the novel concept of an ‘inflectional series’, which I take to be an invariant set of prosodic exponents involved in the making of the principal stems of a Chinantecan verb. I take inflectional series to play an important role in the overall design of the verbal inflection of TCh. Using this unit as an organizing principle, I propose that the verbs of TCh fall into four different conjugation types, which I call ‘conjugation patterns’, which represent inflectional templates of verbs attending to the way grammatical person is realized.