Topicality, word order and voice in Otomi

Abstract This paper presents a micro-typological study of two closely related Otomi languages of central Mexico, Tilapa Otomi and Northern Otomi from the variety of San Ildefonso Tultepec Otomi, and examines the evolution of their “impersonal-passive” construction. Drawing on natural discourse data and the quantitative methodology developed by Givón (1983), I analyze 300 transitive clauses with third-person A and O arguments to assess the discourse topicality of participants through referential distance and topical persistence. The results indicate that Tilapa Otomi, the most conservative member of the family, retains a VOS syntax and employs the construction as a truly impersonal mechanism of agent demotion. By contrast, Northern Otomi, the most innovative variety, has shifted toward SVO word order and reanalyzes the same construction as a passive, promoting O to subjecthood in accordance with its high discourse topicality. Independent syntactic evidence from complementation further supports this analysis. The study highlights the utility of Givón’s quantitative approach for documenting the interplay between voice, word order, and information structure in under-described languages, and it shows how closely related varieties can diverge significantly in the syntax and function of a shared grammatical construction.