Feria (1567) Sacrament of confirmation in Colonial Valley Zapotec

Feria, Doctrina f104v 'Sacrament of confirmation'

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Analysis of Feria, Doctrina f104v 'Sacrament of confirmation' (This section of the text starts on the second paragraph of the page.)

Cetanalaga  cetanalaga  follows  cotopa  co-  PERF  topa  two  Sacramento  Sacramento  sacrament  . Here follows the second sacrament. Siguesse el segundo sacramento. Cotopala  co-  PERF  topa  two  la  la  loo  loo  aspect, kind  sacramento  sacramento  sacrament  nàca  n  STA  àca  be able; can  quela  quela=  NOM=  huecaapea  hue-  AGN  caapea  confirm  bixoce  bixoce  father  obispo  obispo  bishop  . The second is confirmation. El segundo es la confirmacion. Chi  chi  when  tocaa pea  to-  HAB:CAUS  caapea  confirm  bixoce  bixoce  father  coqui  coqui  lord  Obispo  Obispo  bishop  tòtila  tòti  some (animate)  =la  =indef  beni  beni  person  , chicani  chicani  then  topaloo  topa  two  loo  aspect, kind  taca  t-  HAB  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)  : cotobiloo  co-  PERF  tobi  one  loo  face  tigabini  ti-  HAB  gabi  anoint  =ni  =3  benî  benî  give  cani  cani  this  tobi  tobi  one  nocuana  nocuana  herb, medicine  nachono  na-  STA  chono  be.valuable; be valuable  tete  tete  very  , ninocha  topa  topa  two  nocuana  nocuana  herb, medicine  tobilâ  tobi  one  =lâ  =and  azeyte  azeyte  oil  , cetobilâ  ce-  again  tobi  one  =lâ  =and  balsamo  , ticha  ticha  word  castilla  castilla  Castillian  , Cotopa  Co-  PERF  topa  two  loo  loo  aspect, kind  tocaa  to-  HAB:CAUS  caa  take  bixoce  bixoce  father  Obispo  Obispo  bishop  bennabi cruz  bennabi cruz  sign of the cross  X  loo  loo  aspect, kind  lo cuaa  lo cuaa  forehead  benicani  beni  person  cani  this  . When the bishop confirms someone, two things happen. One is that he anoints him with a very precious liquor, composed of two liquors, which are balsam and oil: the other is that he makes the sign of the cross on the forehead. Quando el obispo confirma a alguno, dos cosas se hazen. La una es, que le unge con un liquor muy preciado, compuesto de dos liquores, que son balsamo y azeyte: lo otro es que le haze la señal de la cruz X en la frente. Quitopa  qui-  IRR  topa  two  loo  loo  aspect, kind  nitij  nitij  this  tolohuini  to-  HAB:CAUS  lohui  =ni  =3  quela  quela=  NOM=  coego  christiano  christiano  Christian  , nicocañeni  ni  in.that  co-  PERF  cañe  =ni  =3  , ni  ni  REL  pigabañe  pi-  PERF  gabañe  pertain, go with  quitaalij  quitaalij  all(IRR-all-straight)  beni  beni  person  , chicoxijni  chi  when  co-  PERF  xij  receive(notIRR)  =ni  =3  quela cotobaniça  quela cotobaniça  baptism  , oalijca  oa  PRF  lij  straight, true  =ca  =EMPH  ticàpea  ti-  HAB  càpea  beni  beni  person  Christiano  Christiano  Christian  bennabi cruz  bennabi cruz  sign of the cross  X  locuaani  locuaa  forehead  =ni  =3  , niani  niani  for  quiyennini  quiy-  IRR  enni  understand  =ni  =3  , cacapeani  cacapea  know  =ni  =3  ticha  ticha  word  yanaquîñati  ya=  NEG=  na-  STA  quîña  be.necessary  =ti  =NEG  , cocachini  co  IRR  cachi  be.burried  =ni  =3  looquela  loo  face  quela  nom  Christiano  Christiano  Christian  xitenini  xi-  POSS  teni  possession  =ni  =3  , Both of these two things show the Christian army, to which all men who have received the holy baptism are obligated and subject. The Christian is shown on the forehead with the sign of the cross: X so that he understands and knows that he does not have to hide or cover the fact of being a Christian. Entrambas estas dos cosas significan la milicia christiana, a que esta obligado, y subjecto todo hombre, que ha rescebido el sancto baptismo. Es señalado el christiano en la frente con la señal de la cruz: X para que entienda, y cognozca, que no ha de esconder, ni encubrir el ser que tiene de christiano.

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References

Spanish typefaces and abbreviations in the Feria Doctrina

One of the challenges of working with Colonial Valley Zapotec material is occasionally the very difficult to read Spanish.  The following screenshot shows some of the ways in which the Spanish of this period was highly abbreviated.

I was recently lucky to be pointed to the following source on Feria's Doctrina:

http://editorial.csic.es/publicaciones/libros/10808/978-84-00-08058-7/catecismo-del-sacromonte-y-doctrina-christiana-de-.html

which is a comparison of the Feria Doctrina with a Spanish catechism of about the same time.  The author Luis Resines has transcribed many parts of the Spanish text.  I was able to use his transcription to greatly speed up the analysis of the Zapotec in this portion.   The FLEx screenshot of this paragraph is below:

(Analysis of this part is not yet complete.)

Central Zapotec languages

The tree below is the current version of something that I am working on.  It's intended to show major branches of Central Zapotec (according to the classification of Smith Stark 2007), and it also shows (in brackets and italics) where we currently have Colonial Valley Zapotec documents in our FLEx corpus.

I know that there are many other Colonial Valley Zapotec documents out there, so the tree will get 'bushier' over time, but I found this a useful graphic view of where the documents come from in terms of distribution.

A verb of position as a diachronic source for continuous aspect in Zapotec?

This morning I was reading a bit of


Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca (1994). The Evolution of Grammar. Tense,
Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World, Chicago: The University of Chicago.

where she discusses the evolution of progressive aspect in languages around the world.  In many languages, it originates in some construction that involves a locative expression, either with a verb of position or something like 'be in X'.

This got me to wondering about the Continuous aspect in modern Valley Zapotec languages.   This is not a well-attested aspect in Colonial Valley Zapotec, but I find some examples of incipient grammaticalization, all in the construction 'I say', where the verb nni is used with a preceding ca- prefix that looks very much like the continuous aspect ca- found in modern Valley Zapotec.

A possible connection to a verb of position is the word cáá 'hang, be located (in a high place)'.  The lexical entry for this word in San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec in the current draft of my own dictionary looks like the following:

In the Colonial Valley Zapotec examples that I have, only 'I speak' is used with a preceding ca:

It is probably also significant that both of these examples are accompanied by the adverb anna 'now', as would be appropriate for a continous aspect marker.   

But I do want to emphasize that continous aspect marking is incipient in Colonial Valley Zapotec, and I haven't identified any other examples in the texts.  In modern Valley Zapotec languages, you can use continous for a wide range of verbs; in CVZ only the verb 'say' is attested so far.