In the Ethnologue classification of languages, San Pablo Güilá Zapotec and San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec are supposed to be two dialects of the same language. (They both have the Ethnologue code ztu).
These two towns are both located in the southern Tlacolula Valley area of Oaxaca and they are adjacent to each other. The main source of information I have for Güilá is the 2009 dissertation of Francisco Arellanes.
[Arellanes, Francisco. 2009. El sistema fonológico y las propriedades fonéticas del zapoteco de San Pablo Güilá. Descripción y análisis formal. Tesis doctoral. Colegio de México.]
However, as I work through this thesis, it becomes clearer to me that the Güilá and San Dionisio varieties are more different from each other than you might expect if they were simply dialects.
Some differences:
These two towns are both located in the southern Tlacolula Valley area of Oaxaca and they are adjacent to each other. The main source of information I have for Güilá is the 2009 dissertation of Francisco Arellanes.
[Arellanes, Francisco. 2009. El sistema fonológico y las propriedades fonéticas del zapoteco de San Pablo Güilá. Descripción y análisis formal. Tesis doctoral. Colegio de México.]
However, as I work through this thesis, it becomes clearer to me that the Güilá and San Dionisio varieties are more different from each other than you might expect if they were simply dialects.
Some differences:
- Presence of a /ɨ/ phoneme in Güilá. There is no phonemic /ɨ/ in San Dionisio, though [ɨ] appears as an allophone of /i/ after /ts/ and /dz/ affricates. Sample contrasts :
- Güilá gɨ:ʒ 'roncha (spots on the skin)' Arell. p 150/ San Dionisio ge:dʒ 'grano (pimple)'
- Güilá mɨ:lj 'dinero (money)'/San Dionisio me:lj
- Affricates /dz/ and /dʒ/ in San Dionisió; these have simplified to /z/ and /ʒ/ in Güilá. (This is a sound change that Güilá shares with other Zapotec such as San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec.) The previous example also shows this correspondence
- Güilá gɨ:ʒ 'roncha (spots on the skin)' Arell. p 150/ San Dionisio ge:dʒ 'grano (pimple)'
- Güilá na:ʒ 'mojado (wet)'/San Dionisio na:dʒ
- Fortis L is /ld/ in San Dionisio but /l/ or /lθ/ in Güilá in at least some positions (syllable final only?)
- Güilá bel: 'pescado (fish)'/San Dionisio beʰld
- Other kinds of changes (affecting loans)
- Güilá btʃar 'spoon'/San Dionisio kutʃarr 'spoon' (< Spanish cucharra 'spoon')
- Güilá ta:ɸ 'cuento (account)'/San Dionisio ta:bl (< Spanish tabla 'table)
- Güilá pun: 'punta (first pressing of mezcal)'/San Dionisio punt (<Spanish punta)
2 comments:
As for cuento 'account' and tabla 'table', maybe the link is something like trapeza in Koine Greek (and maybe in other varieties). It means table but also, as in the Gospel accounts of Jesus casting out the money changers, can mean something like "banker, money worker, etc".
I certainly don't think that this semantic shift would be due to direct imitation of the Greek, but maybe the connection would be the use of tables (at markets, perhaps) for counting and exchanging money. Maybe!!
This from Mark 11:15 (I'm not sure if you can read Koine, but here goes): καὶ τοὺς ἀγοράζοντας ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, καὶ τὰς τραπέζας τῶν κολλυβιστῶν καὶ τὰς καθέδρας τῶν πωλούντων τὰς περιστερὰς κατέστρεψε
The other connection I thought of was between multiplication tables and counts. But I think I want to ask my speaker more about how this Zapotec word is used...
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