Looking at these forms, and having in mind that in this dialect the words for "animal" and "thing" are mayn and kwing it is possible to understand the following conjugation and upon what it is based: II. CONJUGATION. All the following forms are in the Continuative, marked by the prefix r-. The radical of "to eat" is -aw-. 12 The abbreviations are for: o(bject) n(ot) m(entioned), etc. 13 Often heard as raung, h/l. 14 In twing the w is an umlaut w as in French huit-in this form the nasal vowel ends in nasal breath, therefore really inh instead of ing—not found in other pueblos. 15 Same remarks about tone as for Huixtepec. 16 Notice how the semi-prefix do, also found in the independent pronoun, is absent from the conjugation. 17 This is the name of the pestle. IV. ACCIDENTAL POSSESSION. There are several types, and they illustrate very well the several degrees of complexity: "mantle" lahti (1;1): "my mantle" clahtya (1;h), "thy mantle" clahtyu (h;l), "his mantle" clahtyang (1;1), etc., etc. Suppose I am speaking of my field, I may say any one of three things: ckeela or xeel ctenya or without mentioning the word "field" but implying it ctening. 18 Umlaut w. 19 Compare tone with that of clenyang "it is mine" above. A good example of how tone pattern works. 20 The -m- element refers to the "animal" gender. Suppose I am speaking of my turkey, I may say either cbera or ber clenya or ctenyam. Suppose I am speaking of my home (which is essentially part of me) I may say liiza or ctening but not cliiza, at least it will sound funny. However, if I mean my house I may say: cyu'a or yu'u ctenya or ctening. Suppose I am speaking of my spouse: (tciel for either sex) tciela or ctenyang. The above use of the possessive can, of course, be extended to the verb. The expression cteny . . . . is nothing but a fusion of the possessive prefix c-, the "indefinite article" te (derived from the numeral "one" tob), and the element ni which is just about the equivalent of the Latin ens. Now, if the principle of the possessive in the Teotitlan dialect as shown above is well understood, there will be found nothing of any difficulty in the structure of the relational concepts, not only in this dialect, but in any of the other languages of the group, for that is the kernel of it all. This use of gender (person, animal, thing) in the verb is, of course, a mixed-relational concept III. (classification of Dr. Sapir). It seems appropriate to give at this point a sample of the Teotitlan dialect. Here is the beginning of the same tale as told above: te ve-ni r-a'n-ang sndia; a cac r-u'u dany; person plants watermelons then there is trouble neety-ang toto main r-etaw-ing; aj b-ailaugh-ning says he (the man) what animal comes and eats then he took care tci ghwe konex ne' lam r-au-ming; aj when came rabbit and he (anim.) eats (things) and ghu-nez-ang caught (the man did) lam. him (the animal) Another example will make it clearer. Here are four expressions heard often in the streets of Teotitlan (nis is "water," hia is "rain," yav is the radical of "to fall," s- is the prefix of "incipiative," ka- is the prefix of the "continuative," b- is the prefix of the "perfect," r- is the prefix "frequentative"): syav nis hia "it's going to rain"; kayaving "this is an aguacero!" (a downpour); byavang "he fell down" (speaking of a child), or byav badau (badau: "a small child"); ryavum "he is a stumbler!" (speaking of a donkey); and the following, heard once a propos of a child who was crying because he had lost the banana (voua) he was eating: byav vðua ctening "he has dropped his banana." 3) Sub-dialect of the Isthmus The dialect of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, although far removed from the others and forming, as it were, an outlying colony beyond the mountains of the Chontales and the Mixes, is nevertheless fundamentally the same as that of the Big Valley, although the natural way of communications is through the Small Valley and a series of passes in the mountains: Besides there is all the series of the duals, trials, etc.: (incl.) or (excl.) "we two" iropanu iropadu "we five" (incl.) or (excl.) idigayanu idigayadu idicopanu idico padu "we seven" idigajenu idigajedu "we all" iranu iradu Note in this respect that the first four show a certain amount of contraction; after that they can hardly be called "formal" plurals. Here are the Tehuantepec numbers: 1 tuvi 2 tcupa 3 tcona 4 tapa 5 grayo 6 copa 7 gaje. Dialect of the Northern Mountains Enough has been said to allow us to treat now the dialects of the Northern Mountains in a very rapid manner and almost without comments. It will be seen how different they are, and yet built on the same basis: 1) Sub-dialect of the Basin of Ixtlan The second plural needs an explanation. The Macuiltianguis form is clearly a pluralized polite address. "Your honour," "Usted" is found almost everywhere in the Zapotecan region. It appears as yubyu in the Valley, and kwina or kwinalu in the Sierra. The other two forms levi and livii have all the earmarks of being influenced by the Spanish use of the third for the second. Xaltianguis: "to eat" (Rad. -o-; Incip. pfx. gh-) All the above for "object mentioned"-if object is not actually mentioned then it would be: ghoyavi, ghoyaye, ghoyava, ghoyana respectively for any one, an older man, an animal, a thing. The -na form is of course the most frequent; it corresponds exactly to the -ing of the Little Valley; it appears as -ni in some localities, and gets generally mixed up with the element ni "to be essentially." "The furthermost Zap. pueblo. "This apparent anomaly is found everywhere in the Sierra, and is very useful as an index of dialectical variations, but we cannot go into it here. |