Zapotec language map (Central Valley)

I came across a map from Thomas Smith Stark's classification of Zapotec languages recently.  (They were unfortunately not in the printed volume, but were a supplement...)

The following shows the grouping of Zapotec languages in the Central Valley east of the city of Oaxaca:

Draft version of the San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec dictionary

I posted a draft dictionary of San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec at sandionisiozapotec.webonary.org
today.  Here is a bit of a screen shot:

I have some problems now with the colors of the different languages -- English should be consistently black, but I can see that it is sometimes blue!

Verbs of wearing in San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec and Copala Triqui

Work in progress -- Verbs of wearing in Zapotec and Copala Triqui show tremendous complexity in the relationship between the lexical semantics and the syntactic realization of the arguments.  They include whether the person, the body part of the person, or the item of the clothing is selected as subject of the sentence. I think these verbs pose tremendous problems for simple versions of mapping theory.

 

Verbs of wearing in San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec

 

Verb	Subject	Object	Items	Example	Translation
rr-cáá	Clothing	Body part of Person	glasses, tattoos, scars, shoes, watches	1.) Cáá rrèlòj náá=eby	1.) He is wearing a watch (on his hand).
r-ajcw	Person	Clothing	shirt, dress (vestido)	1) R-àjcw Juáàny cùtòòny.	1.) Juan is wearing a shirt. (15:011)
r-áày	Person	Clothing	skirt, diapers	1.) N-ááy bdòò zù'údy	1.) The baby is wearing diapers.
rr-be'cy	Person	Clothing	pants, underwear	1.) Rr-bè'cy Juáàny pàntlòòn.	1.) Juan is wearing pants.
n-ù'ú	Clothing	Body part of Person	earrings, false teeth, wigs, stockings, belts, girdles, gloves, ribbons, hat	1.)N-ù'ú lìxtóóny ììcy=bi. 2.) N-ù'ú làày pòstííjs rù'ú=by	1.)She has a ribbon on her head. 2. He has false teeth in his mouth. (15:030)

 

 

 

Verbs of wearing in Copala Triqui

Verb	Subject	Object	Items	Example	Translation
'nij	Body part of Person	Clothing	shoes, gloves, sash	'nij ra'a Juán nuj guanté. Juán 'nij catuu̱n marque̱.	Juan is wearing gloves. Juan is wearing a sash. [Inserted BP Theme]
nuu (1)	Person	Clothing	shirt, huipil, pants, dress, underwear	Nuu Juán cotoó mare̱e.	Juan is wearing a red shirt [Wear Person Theme]
nuu (2)	Clothing	Body part of person	hat, mask	Nuu nave̱ raa̱ Juán. Nuu nuj na'na̱ rihaan Juán.	Juan has a hat on his head. Juan has a mask on his face. [Is-placed Theme BP]
nuu (3)	Body part of person	Clothing	glasses, ring, watch	Nuu rihaan Juán scura̠a̠n.	Juan is wearing glasses. [Supports BP Theme]
táá	Clothing	Body part of person	turban, mask	Táá tsej raa̱ Juán.	Juan is wearing a turban. [Be-on-top Theme BP]
nacutáj ~ nutáj	Clothing	Body part of person	diaper	Nacuta̱a̱ tséj catuu̱n ne'ej.	The baby will wear a diaper. [Encircle Theme BP]

 

Bi-replacives in Central Zapotec

When two forms of a verb root differ in transitivity in Zapotec, there are a variety of ways in which this is signaled in the morphology. The most common is a fortis/lenis alternation, where the more transitive begins with a fortis consonant and the less transitive begins with the corresponding lenis consonant.

The following are some such pairs in San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec
r-bè’cy r-cwè’cy 'be lain (of eggs), worn/lay (eggs), wear'
r-bè’é r-cwè’ 'be taken off, out/take off, out'
r-bééz r-cwééz 'wait for/cause to wait for'
r-dè'é r-tè'é         'be rolled up/roll up'
r-dò'         r-tò'         'be sold/sell'
r-dòòby r-tòòby 'be rolled up/roll up'
r-dxà         r-chà         'be filled/fill'
r-dxà'ág r-chà'ág 'be joined/join'
r-dxììby r-chììby 'be afraid/frighten'
r-gà'ts r-cà'ts 'be buried, hidden/bury, hide'
r-gì'í         r-quì'í 'be cooked/cook'
r-gíí'dy r-quíí'dy 'be stuck in/stick in'
r-go'         r-cò'         'be mashed, crushed/mash, crush'
r-là'         r-ldà'         'be saved/save'
r-ràyá' r-tyàyá' 'be grated/grate'
r-róób r-tyóób 'be sprinkled/sprinkle'
r-rù'         r-tyù'         'be cut (from a tree)/cut (from a tree)'
r-rúùxh r-tyùùxh 'be peeled/peel'

One of the least common is the type where the initial CV of the more transitive member is /tsi-/ or /dzi-/ and the corresponding less transitive verb has /bi-/ in this position:

r-bìcá r-dzìcá 'get out, exit/take out'
r-bìjldy r-tsildy 'be destroyed/destroy'
r-bì'íldy r-dzì'ildy 'be hung, stretched/ hang,stretch'


I've recently been looking at the reflexes of verbs with a bi- replacive in Colonial Valley Zapotec and in several Central (modern Valley and Isthmus) languages, arriving at a table like the following:

Glosses	Isthmus	Mitla	SLQuiavini	Guila	Colonial Valley	Comments
desbaratar(se), deshacer(se), descoser(se), desgranar(se) [undo, destroy]	ribiá ~ ruchiá	bihL 'to be undone' ~ tsuhL 'to undo' (destruir, descoser, desbaratar)	r-bihlly ~ r-tse'ihlly 'destroys'	biyi ‘deshacerse’ / u+tsiyi ‘destruirlo’ (TSS) | bìld ~ tsìld (Lopez Cruz)	bi(j)lla ~ chi(j)lla	*ts > ch in IZ *iL > i in IZ *iL > iy in Guila1 *L >ld in Guila2 *tsu > tsi (or sï) in Guila; tse in SLQZ; chi in IZ It is odd that TSS and LC cite different forms for Guila
extender, tender	rìbìàá ~ ruchìàá	r-biL ~ ru-tzuL		bì'ld~ tsì'ld
voltear	ribi'xhi'~rutiixhi'		not found	bishi ‘voltearse’ (B) / u+di’ishí ‘voltearlo’ (Acaus)	? texi ~ bixi 'tangle'
poner [put]	(not found)	bihb 'to be put' ~ dzub 'to put'	r-bèe'b 'gets put on'~ r-zùu'b 'puts'	bï̀ïb ~ sï̀ïb 'colocar, poner'	bijba ~ chijba
acercar(se) [get close]	(not found)	bǐg 'to lean' ~ s-tsǔg ' to make to lean' (or get close)		bḯḯg ~ sḯḯg 'acercar(se)' (LC)	biga ~ chijga	Briggs has 'lean', vs. Stubblefield acercar
spin	(not found)	biʔ ~ 'to be spun' ~ dzuʔ 'to spin'	not found	bia7 ~ u+zia7 ‘menearlo’(TSS) byée' ~ syée' 'mover, menear' (LC)	(not found)
smooth	(not found)	biL 'to be smoothed' ~ tsuL 'to smooth out'	not found		chilla ~ billa
voltear(se) [turn from]	(not found)	birě 'to turn from' ~ tsurě 'to cause to turn from'	not found			Stubblefield has the transitive as ru-s-piré [voltear]
quitar [remove]	(not found)	bikah 'to be removed' ~ dzukah 'to remove'	r-bicàa~ r-zucàa		(not found)
sacudir [shake]				bï̀ḯg ~ sï̀ḯg 'sacudir(se)'	bijga ~ chijga
clavar [stick into]				bi’ibí ‘clavarse’ (Ac) / dzibi ‘clavarlo’ (C)	not found

New draft of the San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec dictionary posted

I'm more and more adopting the philosophy that we shouldn't keep our data buried in our field notes and computers until it is perfect.  It's more likely to be useful to others if we make it available in intermediate draft stages, so I'm starting to post draft versions of various projects on my page at Academia.edu.   (Inspired by the wisdom of Peter Austin, who posts draft grammars and dictionaries on his page!)

Today I've posted the current, imperfect state of the San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec dictionary. (Ethnologue ZTU) at http://www.academia.edu/3546909/San_Dionisio_Ocotepec_Zapotec_--_Spanish_--_English_dictionary_interim_draft_version_

Here's a screenshot of one part of it:

Progressive aspect as an innovation in Central Zapotec

An updated version of my paper about the evolution of progressive aspect in Central Zapotec languages has just been posted on my page at Academic.edu.

My essential argument is that progressive aspect marking with ca- is innovation in Central Zapotec, and you can still see the early stages of this in Colonial Valley Zapotec.  In the 16th century texts, ca- isn't yet an obligatory marker of progressive (as it is in modern languages in this group).

The Central Zapotec languages include the ones shown in this tree (some branches omitted for visibility), using the classification of Thom Smith Stark (2007):

Some photos of San Dionisio Ocotepec

And for a break from linguistics, some photos of San Dionisio Ocotepec which I stumbled across on the web.

Town hall in San Dionisio, Entrance to the town, entrance to the church