How the Zamuco languages dealt with verb affixes

The purpose of this paper is to offer a plausible reconstruction of the verb inflection paradigms of two genetically related Zamuco languages (Ayoreo and Chamacoco), whose patterns present several points of interests. In particular, one of the two paradigms exhibits a striking violation of a robust generalization concerning affix order, dictating that person markers should precede number markers, irrespective of their position in relation to the root. Careful analysis of the historical data suggests a plausible solution to this puzzle.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a plausible reconstruction of the verb inflection paradigms of two genetically related Zamuco languages (Ayoreo and Chamacoco), whose patterns present several points of interests. In particular, one of the two paradigms exhibits a striking violation of a robust generalization concerning affix order, dictating that Person-markers should precede Number-markers, irrespective of their position in relation to the root. Careful analysis of the historical data provides a plausible solution to this puzzle.