Stem alternations contribute a unique type of morphological complexity to inflectional systems (Baerman et al. 2015), but despite the fact that they can show remarkable stability over time (Maiden 2018), the manner in which they are maintained and the types of changes they undergo are still poorly understood, in particular when it comes to understudied languages for which diachronic data are usually nonexistent. The verbal inflection of Chichimec (Oto-Pamean, Mexico) is characterized by intricate distributions of stem alternations, and it affords us a unique opportunity to study them from a diachronic perspective, because, unlike most other minority languages, we have a precise and detailed description of its verbal inflection system from almost a century ago (de Angulo 1933) from which we are able to reconstruct the paradigms of 170 verbs. In this article, we compare the verbal system as it was registered by de Angulo in 1930 to our own primary data recorded during two recent field trips. We show evidence that certain elements of the intricate patterns of stem alternations have been reanalyzed and redistributed by the speakers. We argue that the changes make sense only from a morphological perspective in which stem alternations are seen as involving fixed configurations of cells, or 'morphomes' (Aronoff 1994). We also show that speakers have not manipulated these configurations in isolation but in clusters, resulting in a substantial restructuring of verbal inflection at the paradigmatic level. We conclude that the changes have not resulted in a simpler system, but rather one that, while almost the same in terms of morphological complexity, has become more consistent.*

International audienceVerbs in San Pedro Amuzgo, an Oto Manguean language of Mexico, often have two different stems in the paradigm, one used with singular subjects and the other with plural subjects. This constitutes a split motivated by number which is typologically interesting due to its rarity, since number splits are commonly only associated with the S and the O arguments, but not S and A as subject. Apart from at stem level, the split is also manifested in the incompletive of an inflectional class of verbs. At stem level the plural stem is derived in a variety of unproductive ways, making the relation between a singular stem and plural stem, synchronically, one of suppletion. In this paper, we study the distribution and the morphological properties of this split in depth, using a sample of almost 600 fully inflected verbs from a large database compiled by native linguist Fermín Tapia and now publicly accessible online at http://www.oto manguean.surrey.ac.uk/ on the Surrey Morphology Group's website. We also place it in a typological context, relating it to other systems we have observed

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In this paper we introduce the object of study of this special issue of Amerindia, the inflectional classes of the Oto-Manguean languages of Mexico, together with their most relevant typological characteristics. These languages are rich both in the variety of their inflectional systems, and in the way these are split into inflection classes. In effect, the full typological range of possible inflection class systems can be found just in this one stock of languages. This is illustrated through a survey of the variety of morphological forms, assignment principles, and paradigm structure, as well as the effects of combining multiple inflection class systems across different exponents within a single word form.

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