Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Elements between compound verbs in Colonial Valley Zapotec

Several words that function as single words in most modern Valley Zapotec languages are compounds, often with the word lachi 'heart'.  For example, a verb like r-ielilachi is 'believe' in several modern languages.

The general structure in modern languages is Asp[Verb-lachi](=adv clitics)

In the Colonial texts, we see a number of elements that may appear between the final root in the compound and the initial material.  So we instead see a structure like

Asp-Verb (=clitics) (other elements?) lachi

The following examples show some of the items that are between the two parts.
a.) The negative clitic =ti
This example shows up in the phrase aca xi penni=ti lachi=a 'I have not paid attention'

Aguero 1666 p. 6
b.) a quantifier like quitobi 'all'

This is in the phrase Coxenni quitobi lachi=a 'I have entrusted all'

Aguero 1666 p. 6
c.) adverbs like chahui 'well'
d.) emphatic clitics like =lij and =ca

Both of these possibilities are shown in the following example:

Aguero 1666 p 2

[to be continued]

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