_{A boundary marker showing the border between two communities in the Tlacolula Valley.}

This lesson is about identificational sentences and related patterns. Sections §19.1–19.3 present identificational sentences without “be” and with two “is” verbs, na and rac. Section §19.4 explains more about identificational sentences, and section §19.5 more about rac. Adjectives are introduced in section §19.6.

Xiëru Zalo Ra Dizh

1. The main duty of the lasliery or “constable” (alguacil, in Spanish) is to patrol the streets of the community and enforcing curfew. This position, like other municipal offices in San Lucas and other towns in Oaxaca, is a cargo duty (see dialogue VI-4).

2. Diseases are viewed and treated very differently in Zapotec culture from the way we expect in the United States. Your teacher can tell you about diseases like xlyiayas and xlyiayats (not the same as “yellow fever” in Western medicine) and about how diseases are treated by the wnya in a traditional Zapotec community. You can read more about medical vocabulary in section VIII-3 in this unit.

3. As you’ll see in section §19.6.3, some adjectives, such as ncweby, change when used as modifiers. The modifying (“mod.”) form of such adjectives is listed in the Ra Dizh.

§19.1. Identificational sentences without “be”

An IDENTIFICATIONAL sentence tells that one person or thing is the same as another or gives the category to which that person or thing belongs, as with I’m Chica’s brother or The teacher is a woman or This is a blal. In English, we use a form of the verb be to do this. (Be is the most irregular English verb. Forms of be include am, is, are, was, were, and more!) The noun phrase that comes before the form of be in English (I, my teacher, this) is the subject; the noun phrase that comes after the form of be in English (Chica’s brother, the teacher, this) is the PREDICATE, which the speaker uses to identify the subject with.

There are three different ways to express identificational sentences in Valley Zapotec, all of which you have already seen in Blal xte Tiu Pamyël. The simplest one is with the predicate noun phrase followed by the subject, as in the following examples:

Unlike the English sentences, there is no word that means “be” in these sentences! (The other two types of Valley Zapotec identificational sentences do have a word for “be”, as you’ll see later in this lesson.)

_{Fot Teiby xte Lecsyony Tseinyabtap. Day of the Dead altar in Tlacolula.}

This sentence pattern may look very simple, but there is one thing about this pattern that’s quite strange. The subject in the first sentence is expressed not with a bound pronoun, but with a free pronoun!

This is the first type of Valley Zapotec sentence you’ve seen that uses free pronouns to express subjects. (Maybe free pronouns are used here because there is no verb for the bound pronoun to attach to — but who knows?) As you can see, either the subject or the predicate can be a phrase containing more than one word. Here are some more examples:

You cannot focus the subject in identificational sentences of this type. The predicate always comes first.

Question word identification questions. Here are some examples:

These questions use the following patterns:

As you can see, it’s the question word that counts as the predicate in this pattern.

Negative versions of this type of identificational sentence do not use queity. Instead, they use a new identificational negative word, ati [a’ti’]. Here are some examples:

The negative ending –di is used following the predicates in these sentences, just as –di follows the verb in sentences with the regular negative word queity. However, when the predicate consists of a possessed noun phrase like bzyan Bed or xabal Tiu Pamyël, -di goes immediately after the possessed noun, rather than at the end of the possessed noun phrase:

The pattern for negative sentences where the predicate is not possessed is:

The pattern for negative sentences whose predicates are possessed is:

In these sentences, the negative particle –di comes right after the possessed noun, followed by the possessor and the subject. If xte or xten is used, this word comes before the possessor, after –di. Since it is the possessed noun that is the actual predicate, the basic pattern is the same (it just may seem a little unexpected!).

Something similar happens with the “must” particle –zhyi. If the predicate is not possessed, as in the first example below, –zhyi follows the predicate. When the predicate is possessed, as in the second example, –zhyi comes right after the possessed noun (which, again, is the actual predicate).

In all these examples, then, –di and –zhyi go right after the first word of the predicate (before any other endings, such as possessor endings). This is the pattern you will hear in most cases. Listen to how Valley Zapotec speakers construct identificational sentences without “be”, and you may hear other sentence patterns, however.

Don’t try to use the patterns in this section if the subject of the sentence is a plural noun phrase containing ra or two nouns joined by cuan “and” — speakers feel these sentences don’t sound appropriate. You’ll learn about identificational sentences with plural subjects in the next section.

Tarea Tyop xte Lecsyony Tseinyabtap.

Part Teiby. First, read the following Zapotec sentences out loud. Chiru bcwa ni ca ni guet cuan Ingles.

a. Buny Bac Bed.

b. Doctor xtenyuad Lia Zhuan.

c. Xamiegwu Mazh.

d. Buny Dizhsa lang.

e. Wnya mna re.

f. Lasliery xtada.

g. Mes xbieda.

h. Cosiner xamiegw Rnest.

i. Bets Lieb lai.

j. Gyizh ni rguieb lady.

Part Tyop. Make each of the sentences in Part Teiby negative, paying special attention to the placement of –di. Translate your new sentences into English.

Part Chon. Change each of the sentences in Part Teiby so that they use the “must” particle –zhyi. Translate your new sentences into English.

Part Tap. Answer the following questions in Zapotec. If the answer is negative, give a positive sentence that identifies the picture, as in the example.

Example: Manyser nde e?

Answer: Yac, ati manyserdi nde. Bdua nde.

a. Xyecwu nde e?

b. Guan nde e?

c. Gyag nde e?

d. Cabai nde e?

e. Mansan nde e?

f. Blal nde e?

g. Caj nde e?

h. Yu nde e?

§19.2. Identificational sentences with na

Using na to say “is” or “are”. The second type of Valley Zapotec identificational sentence uses the word na [nàa], a “be” verb which usually can be translated with “is” or “are”. (Listen to your teacher! Na “is” is not pronounced the same as the words na “now” or na “says”, or as naa “I”. Can you pronounce all these words so that another student can identify which one you mean?) Here are some examples:

These sentences are translated in the present, and that is generally how we will translate na in this book, but you may hear speakers use na to refer to the past as well. In that case, it may be translated “was” or “were”. You can suggest this by using the adverb chicy “then, at that time”, as in:

As you can see, these sentences look quite similar to the first type of identificational sentence, but they have na between the subject and the predicate. There is a difference, however. This na pattern has two versions, one with the predicate first, one with the subject first:

Both types of sentences are used frequently, and speakers feel that there is little difference in meaning between them. (As you can see, you can often say the same sentence both ways.) The subject-first pattern is especially common when the predicate is a long phrase.

(You may wonder how you can tell the difference between subject and predicate. The subject is the person or thing you are talking about and trying to identify for your hearer; the predicate is what you are using to identify that person. Sometimes, of course, it might be possible to view a sentence both ways!)

Using teiby in the predicate. A predicate in an identificational sentence with na may contain teiby “a”:

In the English translations of such sentences, a appears before the noun in the predicate (a doctor, a bird, and so on). In Valley Zapotec predicates, teiby is equivalent to English a – but it is not always used — speakers feel that sentences like Doctor na Rnest and Teiby doctor na Rnest mean just the same. (Teiby is not used in identificational sentences without a “be” word.)

Identificational sentences with plural subjects. Here are some identificational sentences with plural subjects:

In sentences like these, the predicate usually comes first. Speakers feel that if the subject is first, it is focused, and sounds very emphatic:

Even though we use doctors in the English predicate, ra is never used in the predicate of a Zapotec identificational sentence. A sentence like <Ra doctor na ra mna> doesn’t sound like good Zapotec.

Negative sentences with na. Negative identificational sentences with na work similarly to negative identificational sentences without “be”:

Again, the sentence starts with the special identificational negative word ati, with –di after the predicate, followed by na and the subject.

If the predicate is a possessed noun, the possessor comes between the predicate plus –di and na, just as in the first type of negative identificational sentence:

Na with pronoun subjects. Here are some examples of na used with pronoun subjects:

As you would expect, a pronoun subject is expressed with a bound pronoun attached to na. As the examples show, several patterns are possible. Most commonly, the predicate comes first in the sentence, followed by na and the bound pronoun subject:

Alternatively, you can focus the subject pronoun. In this case, the focused pronoun subject comes first, followed by na, the bound pronoun subject, and the predicate:

Here are the forms of na with attached bound pronoun subjects:

Na is never used with “I” or informal “you” singular subjects. (No one knows why! But if you want to make an identificational sentence with an “I” or informal “you” subject, you can express it without “be”, as in section §19.1, or with another pattern you’ll learn later in this lesson.)

Negative na sentences with pronoun subjects are quite similar to other negative na sentences:

As you can see, the pattern is the same as the one you saw earlier:

Question word questions with na. Here are some examples of question word questions with na:

These questions use the following patterns:

There may be a subtle difference in meaning between these questions and those without na. See what your teacher thinks.

Asking someone’s name. Here’s a very important type of identificational question that usually doesn’t use na or nac:

Asking someone’s name uses an identificational question without “be”. What may seem odd here is that in English we say this with “what”, but in Zapotec you use the word “who”!

More about na. Na looks like a neutral verb — it refers to a state, and it begins with n. But unlike the neutral verbs you learned about in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon, there are no other forms of this verb. Na only is used in this one form — it has no habitual, perfective, or irrealis stem (or any other form at all).

§19.3. Identificational sentences with forms of rac

_{Fot Tyop xte Lecsyony Tseinyabtap. What’s written here? Who should wear this shirt?}

 If you want to use the particle –zhyi with an identificational sentence containing nac or another form of rac, it goes on the predicate:

Putting the subject first in an identificational sentence with nac shows a strong focus:

Habitual rac often has the meaning of “becomes” or “gets to be”, as in

(Gab [ga’ab] means “few”.) The same translation is often used for the irrealis:

Negative sentences with rac. Negative identificational sentences with rac follow a pattern that is similar to the other negative identificational patterns. Here are some examples, and the new pattern:

§19.4. More about identificational sentences

A-queity questions with na and rac. If you want to question an identificational sentence that uses na or a form of rac, you can simply add e at the end of the pattern with the predicate first, followed by na or a form of rac, followed by the subject.

 Starting the question with the subject puts focus on the subject:

Some questions use another word order that’s not usually used in simple identificational sentences like those you saw in sections §19.2–§19.3, as in

This word order, with the “be” word first, followed by the subject, and then the predicate, can be used in questions and also in more complicated sentences, such as

(Buny “person” is frequently used in sentences like this, where the speaker wants to make a general statement about people in general.)

Negative sentences with atizh. In sections §19.1–§19.3, you learned to use ati to make identificational sentences negative. There is another way to make identificational sentences (both with and without “be”) negative, by using a different identificational negative word, atizh [a’ti’zh:], rather than ati. Sentences with atizh usually don’t use –di:

(You will hear some speakers use –di in these sentences. In that case, atizh works just like ati.)

Identification and location. In English, identificational sentences like Ernesto is a doctor and locational sentences like Ernesto is in the museum seem quite similar, because they both use the verb is. These two types of sentences are very different in Zapotec. Unlike identificational sentences, Zapotec locational sentences need to have a verb. The identificational verbs na and rac that you’ve learned in this lesson are generally not used in locational sentences, and locational verbs are generally not used in identificational sentences in Zapotec. (You will learn about one type of locational sentence that uses na in Lecsyony Galy.)

§19.5. More about rac

Rac has a number of other meanings and uses. Some of these may seem similar to the “be” idea, but others may not! These other types of rac sentences are not identificational, however, so they do not contain noun predicates, and they don’t use ati or atizh for their negatives.

“Happens”. First, rac can also mean “happens”, as in

(The progressive of rac, cayac [cayahc], makes sense with this meaning of the verb, but not in its identificational use.) In these sentences, the subjects are the bound pronoun –i “it” and xi “what”. Sometimes, however, you will see rac used without a subject, to mean “it happens” with nothing used to say “it”, as in

Sentences about illness. Two additional meanings of rac that are related to illness. Rac can mean “hurts” or “aches”, as in