S-18. More Words for Members of the Family

This section presents some additional body part words to supplement those you learned in Lecsyony Tsëda, as well as some new meanings for a few words you already know. As you’ll see, although most of these are e-possessed, there are a number of different ways to use them with possessors. (This section might provide a good opportunity for you to review how possession works.)

§1. First, here are some family words that are e-possessed only. These words can’t be used by themselves. They must always be used with a possessor, and they are never used with either the prefix x- or the word xten.

Here are some examples of phrases using these words:

Some additional e-possessed words for family members are compound phrases containing more than one word.

Because these words are e-possessed, they must always be used with a possessor. The possessor follows the whole phrase. If the possessor is a pronoun, it’s attached to the end of the whole phrase. Once again, each of these expressions is never used with the prefix x- or the word xten. Here are some examples:

§2. Another group of words for members of the family are another type of e-possessed noun that you also learned about in Lecsyony Tsëda, meaning they must always have a possessor. Unlike those given above, however, they always include an x. Here are some examples:

Notice that the last two words can only be used with a female possessor. None of  these words can be used with xten or xte.

Xpangual is a possessed form of bangual “old person, elder”, so a phrase like

is quite comparable to the English my old man, and, like the English, is a very casual expression. Although the x the other words begin with is almost certainly the x- possessive prefix, you can’t drop it off the way you can from most possessed words. Here are some examples of these words used with possessors:

Xawzan usually is used to refer to both parents.

There are also compound words that work similarly:

Here are some examples. In each case, the possessor follows the whole phrase, and no xten, xte, or added x- is used.

§3. The words below are exceptional e-possessed nouns, just like the words nan “mother” and dad “father” that you learned in Lecsyony Tsëda. You can say these names on their own, as follows:

It’s very natural to use words like these on their own as terms of address when you are addressing the family members named above.

You’ve already learned that bied and tiu can be used as terms of address. But notice that bied and tiu have a broader meaning than just “aunt” and “uncle” — they are general respectful terms for people older than oneself, especially relatives.

Since the words above are kinship terms, however, they are usually used with a possessor. When you mention a possessor, as with the exceptional e-possessed nouns in Lecsyony Tsëda, you need to use the x- prefix. Some of these words work completely regularly — their e-possessed forms do not change except for the addition of x- — but the other words change in the regular ways you learned in Lecsyony Tsëda when the x- is added.

These e-possessed words are never used with xten or xte.

Here are some examples of how these words are used with possessors:

There are also compound words in this group:

As with the words above, these older words can be used on their own as address terms, or they can be used with possessors. Like the other words in this section, the e-possessed forms of these words include the prefix x-:

Here are some examples of these phrases used with possessors:

§4. Valley Zapotec has several general terms for people who are not blood relatives, but who are related through a blood relative of a godparent or in-law. Even though we don’t have words for these concepts in English, these relationships are very important in Zapotec culture, so you should learn how to use them.

The “relatives” in these definitions are all blood relatives, though we will use the word “relative” for short in the examples below. (If you know Spanish, you may find these terms similar to the Spanish words comadre, compadre, consuegro, and consuegra. However, their meanings in Zapotec are not the same as in Spanish either.)

All of these new words are used the same as the words in §3 above — they may be used on their own as terms or address, or they be used with possessors in their e-possessed versions (formed with the prefix x-).  Here are the e-possessed forms of the new kinship terms.

Here are some examples of these words with possessors:

§5. There is one additional kinship term that is used not with x-, but with xten or xte — in other words, although this is a kinship term, it does not have an e-possessed form:

Here are some examples:

§6. A few words for family members are only used as terms of address. Here’s an example:

This word isn’t ever used with a possessor, and it never appears with the prefix x- or with xten or xte.

Other words that are familiar to you already can be used as address terms with an additional meaning to the one you know:

Remember, you can address your father-in-law as Dad, but the e-possessed form xtada means only “my father”, not “my father-in-law”.