The following is my best guess at the analysis of a passage from Feria's Doctrina in Colonial Valley Zapotec. What is of some interest is trying to work out the right analysis of the word chiba here. It probably is related to the word 'put', which is a causative of 'sit':
The word that follows is xihui, which means 'sin'. So the whole phrase, we know from the translation, means 'condemned by Pontius Pilate'. But what is the literal Zapotec? Chiba xihui seems like 'place sin', so is 'condemn' = 'place sin', with =ni serving as the subject of this verb?
Still, it's hard to understand the syntax of the part that follows this... justicia ni pettogo xihui xitichani Iuez nila Poncio Pylato. From looking at other examples of 'judge' it seems that the verb ttogo is always followed by a form of ticha 'word', so that this is a quasi-idiomatic expression. (The possessor of the word seems to be the person who is judged.) "Judge a person's sins" seems to involve putting the word xihui between these two parts.
The word that follows is xihui, which means 'sin'. So the whole phrase, we know from the translation, means 'condemned by Pontius Pilate'. But what is the literal Zapotec? Chiba xihui seems like 'place sin', so is 'condemn' = 'place sin', with =ni serving as the subject of this verb?
Still, it's hard to understand the syntax of the part that follows this... justicia ni pettogo xihui xitichani Iuez nila Poncio Pylato. From looking at other examples of 'judge' it seems that the verb ttogo is always followed by a form of ticha 'word', so that this is a quasi-idiomatic expression. (The possessor of the word seems to be the person who is judged.) "Judge a person's sins" seems to involve putting the word xihui between these two parts.
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