In Colonial Valley Zapotec texts, we often see an aspect marker that is spelled something like hue or hua before the verb. The function of this marker is a bit uncertain, and in the modern Valley Zapotec languages that I am most familiar with, it is no longer in use.
The following passages, from an 1823 Catechism, however, seem to show that hua is not strictly speaking an aspect marker, but another kind of morpheme that precedes the aspect prefix /r-/.
In modern Valley Zapotec /r-/ is habitual, but in Colonial Valley Zapotec, /r-/ had a wider range of uses. Perhaps at this point in the 19th century, the combination huari was the normal way to indicate repeated actions?
Contrast the following where the /r-/ appears without the hua. Here we seem to have more of an eternal 'gnomic' style reading of the clauses:
Contrast the following where the /r-/ appears without the hua. Here we seem to have more of an eternal 'gnomic' style reading of the clauses:
1 comment:
I guess we'll have to check to see if we ever see huari- in the older CVZ docs. My feeling is that we don't, however.
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