Aguero -- Colonial Valley Zapotec questions on the sixth commandment

The following is from the 1666 Aguero Catechism in Colonial Valley Zapotec.  I'm experimenting with ways to present this information to readers.  Comments welcome!

Aguero 026-31 (Sixth commandment)

1

Pexijhui

pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin

ñeelo

=ñee  =with  =lo  =2s

,

l

l

peechaaga

pee-  PERF  chaaga  join

xijhuilo

xijhui  sin  =lo  =2s

,

l

l

peegallalo

pee-  PERF  galla  touch  =lo  =2s

bennigonna

benni  person  gonna  female

?

Have you sinned with a woman?

Haz pecado con alguna muger?

2

Huallijca

hua-  PRF  llij  straight, true  =ca  =EMPH

channa

channa  father, priest

pexijhuicaya

pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin  =ca  =EMPH  =ya  =1s

,

peegallacaya

pee-  PERF  galla  touch  =ca  =EMPH  =ya  =1s

bennigonnaa

benni  person  gonnaa  female

pennicaya

p-  PERF  enni  do  =ca  =EMPH  =ya  =1s

quela

quela=  NOM=

Cobeexe

.

Yes, Father, I have sinned and committed sins of the flesh.

Si Padre, si he pecado y cometido pecados de carne.

(Still working on the analysis of cobeexe).

3

Huarij

hua-  PRF  rij  sit

lechela

lechela  spouse

bennigonnaa

benni  person  gonnaa  female

cani

cani  this

,

nipexijhuiñeelo

ni  REL  pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin  ñee  with  =lo  =2s

?

Was the woman that you sinned with married?

Era casada aquella muger con quien pecaste?

4

Huarijca

hua-  PRF  rij  this  =ca  =EMPH

lechela

lechela  spouse

channa

channa  father, priest

cijcani

cijcani  but

,

huañee

huañee  and

zoochij

zoo  be.standing  chij  day

pexij huiñeea

pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin  ñee  with  =a  =1s

benni

beni  person

zitoobi

zitoobi  single, not married

,

chela

chela  and

ñee

ñee  with

benni

beni  person

gonnaa

gonnaa  female

nî

nî

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

chapa

chapa  young.woman

Cocooni

yoona

yoona  sacred

.

She was married, Father. I have also sinned with some single women and with some young ladies.

Casada era Padre, tambien he pecado con algunas Solteras, y con alguna Donzellas.

(benni zitoobi cannot be 'another person' because of the word order).

5

Copallaxa

copalla  how many times  =xa  =emph

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

benni

beni  person

gonnaa

gonnaa  female

nìpexijhui

nì  REL  pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin

ñeelo

=ñee  =with  =lo  =2s

,

narij

na-  STA  rij  exist

lecheelani

lecheela  husband  =ni  =3

,

Copalla

copalla  how many times

bennì

bennì  person

zitoobi

zitoobi  single, not married

,

benní

benní  person

huizabi

hui-  PRF  zabi  owe

,

chela

chela  and

copalla

copalla  how many times

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

benigonnaa

beni  person  gonnaa  female

Cocooni

cocooni  virgin

yoona

yoona  sacred

,

cotijxelee

co-  PERF  tijxelee  declare

,

cicatonaca

cica  thus  tonaca

toobitobigaa

toobi  one  tobi  one  =gaa  =CLITIC?

gonna

gonna  female

Cani

cani  this

.

How many were married, how many were single, and how many were young? Tell the state of each one.

Quantas fueron las casadas, quantas las solteras, y quantas las Donzellas? Declara el estado de cada una.

6

Channa

channa  father, priest

,

huallijca

hua-  PRF  llij  straight, true  =ca  =EMPH

,

toopa

toopa  two

narij

na-  STA  rij  exist

lecheelani

lecheela  husband  =ni  =3

,

casado

casado  spouse

nacani

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)  =ni  =3

,

laala

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

benni

beni  person

zitobi

zitobi  single, not married

,

chela

chela  and

toobizi

toobi  one  =zi  =only

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

Cocooni

cocooni  virgin

.

Padre, dos eran casadas, otras tantas las solteras, y la Donzella una.

7

Copallaxa

copalla  how many times  =xa  =emph

liaaza

liaaza  time

pexij hui

pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin

ñee

ñee  with

lo

lo  face/to:through:from; to

toobi

toobi  one

tobigaa

benni

beni  person

gonna

gonna  female

cani

cani  but

.

Quantas veces pecastes con cada una?

8

Channa

channa  father, priest

,

toopa

toopa  two

,

chonna

chonna  three

liaaza

liaaza  time

pexij hui

pe-  PERF:CAUS  xijhui  sin

ñee

ñee  with

a

=a  =1s

loo

loo  aspect, kind

toobi

toobi  one

toobi

toobi  one

benni

beni  person

gonnaa

gonnaa  female

casada

,

chela

chela  and

taapa

taapa  four

,

cayo

cayo  five

liaaza

liaaza  time

loo

loo  aspect, kind

toobi

toobi  one

tobigaa

gonnaa

gonnaa  female

zitoobi

zitoobi  single, not married

zi

=zi

liaaza

liaaza  time

,

pegallaya

pe-  PERF:CAUS  galla  touch  =ya  =1s

,

chaapa

chaapa  young.woman

cocooni

cocooni  virgin

.

Con cada una de las casada pequé dos ó tres veces, con cada una de las solteras quatro, ó cinco veces, y con la Donzella, una vez, no mas.

9

Bennigonnaa

benni  person  gonnaa  female

quee

quee  that(prev.mentioned)

,

ni

ni  REL

naca

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)

chaapa

chaapa  young.woman

,

Cocooni

cocooni  virgin

nayoona

na-  STA  yoona  sacred

,

nataa

na-  STA  taa  pure

tete

tete  very

nacani

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)  =ni  =3

,

laa

laa  be.named

huayalla

nacani

n  STA  aca  be(not-PERF/PRF)  =ni  =3

huayannani

huay-  PRF  anna  know  =ni  =3

tolla

tolla  sin

?

Essa Donzella era Virgen intacta, ò sabia ya de pecados?

Images of a friar preaching

The first image below is from the Timucua catechism Pareja (1612).  The second one is from an Otomi doctrina (1576).


There are words in the speech scroll, but what language are they in?

More on the aspectual /wa-/

Colonial Valley Zapotec has two aspectual prefixes, /na-/  and ­/wa-/ (usually spelled ) which introduce verbs denoting states, as in the following passages:

       

‎‎Notice that in these examples, /wa-/ is the only prefix on the root.  It's used in place of another aspectual prefix, so I call this 'aspectual /wa-/'.  More examples in the following:

Contrast the aspectual /wa-/ with the form seen in (3) where /wa-/ precedes another aspect prefix:

I wrote the following in a recent abstract:

As can be seen in these examples, /wa-/ may be the only aspect marker on a predicate (which I label 'aspectual /wa-/') or it may precede another aspectual marker (as in example 3).  The second type of /wa-/ I label 'pre-aspectual /wa-/'. These examples illustrate three generalizations about the distribution of /na-/ and aspectual /wa-/ a.)    /wa-/ asserts an extended state; b.) /na-/ is the neutral form of the affix; it is used when an extended state is not asserted; c.) /na-/ is always found when topical or focal phrases appear in preverbal position.

In example (1), the dirtiness and stickness of tallow are inherent, extended states, and thus these predicates use the /wa-/ prefix.  Similarly in (2), God's existence is an extended state, and the predicate 'exist' uses the /wa-/ prefix. According to the text in (2), the wick is clean and white, but the wick may be polluted by contact with the tallow.  Cleanliness and whiteness are not necessarily extended states (since the clean may become dirty) and the predicates 'white' and 'clean' are marked with /na-/. 

Thus these examples illustrate generalizations (a) and (b).  Generalization (c) is illustrated in example (1) in passages like  'it is dirty'. /wa-/ is used on the first predicate to indicate an extended state, but /na-/ appears on the verb  /-aca/ 'be' because of the focussed position of oa-chaba.  The focussed/non-focussed contrast can also be seen in the non-focussed (2) oa-tij Dios  'God exists' vs focussed (3) tobi-ci D(ios) na-tij  'only one God exists'.

            Pre-aspectual /wa-/ is considerably less frequent, but the following generalizations about its use are possible:

a.)    /wa-/ may appear before the /t-/ 'imperfective', and /na-/ 'stative' aspects, b.) /wa-/ before the imperfective is limited to verbs of speech and cognition such as 'believe', 'want', and 'confess' and appears to indicate an extended cognitive state or a speech act preceded by an extended cognitive state, c.) /wa-/ before stative /na-/ is the least frequent combination, limited to the verbs /-aca/ 'be' and /-aan/ 'know', where it seems to show extended states.         



An interesting addition that I only recently noticed -- the distribution of aspectual and pre-aspectual /wa-/ seems to vary according to the date of the publication.   Levanto (1732) seems to show no clear examples of aspectual /wa-/  (outside the fixed word hualiica 'truly'), but it has about 80 instances of pre-aspectual /wa-/.

Of these cases of pre-aspectual, about 20 are with the verb 'believe',   where hua-ri-ieliilachi-a ' I believe'  is a standard way to express religious belief.
          

---

[1] Some statives (of positional verbs) also appear with no prefix (Lillehaugen and Foreman 2013).

Uses of hua- in Levanto's catechism (1732)

I have been trying to understand the prefix hua- in Colonial Valley Zapotec.

Here are some examples from Levanto 1732 showing differences in the syntactic distribution of verbs with the stative n- or imperfective r(i/o)- and the same thing preceded by the pre-aspectual hua-.  In both main clause question and response we see hua- here:

Levanto 1732, f18

But notice in this pair, the question is n-aca while the response is hua-n-aca:

And both are n-aca here:

And both are rapa 'has' in this example:

In the following, hua- is in the main clause while the same verb is without hua- in the relative clause:

Here we have hua-rapa in the affirmative but rapa in the negative:

Tentative hypothesis: Naca is the neutral copula;  hua-naca emphasizes the duration.  (In some cases it might be translated 'is and continues to be').  Similarly rapa is neutral 'have' but huarapa  emphasizes duration.

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!

Causative constructions in Copala Triqui, continued

In an old post, I pointed out some unusual causative examples in Copala Triqui.

Here is another example in a text that shows some more of the syntax:

The literal translation is something like 'Although [[you suffer problems] causes Spanish]..' corresponding to 'Although Spanish causes you problems..'

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]

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]

 

Unreal ni- in Colonial Valley Zapotec, continued

The following example from Aguero (1666) shows some instances of a puzzling <oo> between the prefix /ni-/ and the following verb stem.

Aguero, Confessionario, p2

Unreal ni- in Colonial Valley Zapotec

Another example of early use of ni-, in a negative context:

Feria f31

The literal sense of the 3rd line is something like 'if he had not wanted, then all the Jews and all the people of the world would not be (strong) enough to touch him.'

Early examples of unreal ni- in Colonial Valley Zapotec

The following passage from Feria (1567) shows several probable instances of early uses of the unreal aspect prefix marker ni- in negative and hypothetical situations.

Feria f22v