This lesson explains more about using native prepositions. Section §20.1 introduces more native prepositions. Sections §20.2 and §20.3 tell how to use native prepositions with people and animals as objects. Section §20.4 presents words for putting things in locations, and section §20.5 special location words with lo. Sections §20.6 and §20.7 are more about expressing location and questioning objects of native prepositions. Section §20.8 tells how to use modifying phrases with native prepositions.

Xiëru Zalo Ra Dizh

Rzundi “stands erect (in a location)” is another standing verb which is used similarly to rzu and rzugwa, which you learned in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon.

§20.1. More native prepositions

Although most native prepositions are not borrowed, this is not always true. Here’s a sentence containing a new native preposition, puan:

Puan [pu’ann] “on the peak of, at the top of” is a word that is borrowed from Spanish, but it is considered a native preposition. Like other native prepositions but unlike Spanish ones, puan is used with bound pronoun objects rather than free ones, as the second example shows. Puan is usually used to tell about locations at the top of something with a relatively pointed top, such as a tree or mountain.

A few additional native prepositions are not related to body parts. Two examples are lai [lài’] “in the middle of, in the midst of; between (living things)” and lad [làad] “between (non-living things)”.

Two other new native prepositions, gagyeita [gagye’ita’] / gagyei [gagye’i] “around” and gayata [gayàa’ta’] / gaya [gayààa’] “along (a river, for example)”, each have two forms, with and without –ta. Speakers use these both with and without the –ta, but the form with –ta seems to be more common, so that’s probably the best one to learn.

Like all other native prepositions, these native prepositions take bound pronoun objects:

Puan, lai, and lad work like possessed nouns when bound pronoun endings are added. However, the a of the –ta ending on gagyeita and gayata usually drops when you add a bound pronoun, as in gagyeitëng.

A final new native preposition is xpart [x:pa’rt] “in place of, on behalf of, instead of”. You saw an example of this in Gal Rgwe Dizh Gai, when Megan asked Jwanydyau,

Like puan, xpart is based on a Spanish borrowing, but it includes the possessive prefix x– and is considered a native preposition because it takes bound pronoun objects, as in

Xpart is only used with human objects.

In English, we could say The man is sitting beside the woman, so you might think it would be best to use cwe here. But remember that imaginary line! A line from the man to the woman won’t go toward her side, but rather toward her front or, as we’d think of it in Zapotec, her face. So what you should say here is Nguiu zub lo mna. As you know, one of the meanings of lo is “in front of”, and that is the right preposition here, even if it might not be your first choice in English. In Zapotec, cwe is used to say that one thing is “beside” another only if the first one is at the side of the second. (This works the same way even for speakers who don’t use cwe as a body part word.)

Another preposition related to a body part. Losna [losnnaàa’] means “in the hand of” (or, more explicitly, “on the palm of the hand of”) or “in the hands of”. Usually, this preposition (which contains na “hand” and works like na with bound pronouns) refers to location right on the palm of someone’s hand (as in Fot Xop).

Losna can also be used to refer to inheritance, with the verb rsan losna “leaves (property) to (someone)”, as in

Na as a preposition. Na “hand” can also be used to mean “on the branch of” a tree, as in

_{Fot Xop xte Lecsyony Galy. Fruat beb losna mna.}

§20.3. Using Native Prepositions with Animals as Prepositional Objects

Animal prepositional objects also work differently from inanimate prepositional objects. Fot Xop is a picture of a horse with some important parts labeled.

_{Fot Gaz xte Lecsyony Galy. Cabai.}

Make sure you know all these body parts. Most animal body parts are used very similarly to human body parts for expressing location. There’s a big difference, however, in the use of dets “back” and zha (or, for some speakers, zhan) “buttocks, rear end”, for animals rather than people, as you’ll see.

_{Fot Xon xte Lecsyony Galy. Mniny cuan ra guan.}

Compare Fot Xon (just above) and Fot Gai in Tarea Tyop. Although the angles from which the photographs are taken are different, the relationship of the man to the woman in Fot Gai and that of the boy to the bull in Fot Xon are very similar: in both cases, the subject is standing behind the prepositional object. However, we can’t talk about them the same way in Zapotec. Here are some little dialogues:

Fot Tap:

— Cuan nguiu?

— Nguiu zu dets mna.

Fot Gaz:

— Cuan mniny?

— Mniny zu zha guan.

Once again, the best way to understand this difference is to use the imaginary line technique. The line from the boy (the subject) to the bull (the reference or prepositional object) goes to the bull’s buttocks (zha), not to the bull’s back (dets)! You can’t use dets to talk about the relationship of the boy and the bull in Fot Gaz. (What would it mean to say Mniny zu dets guan?)

You shouldn’t use zha to talk about the relationship of the man and the woman in Fot Tap. When something is behind (or “in back of”) a human, it’s best to use dets. Dets usually expresses “behind” (or “in back of”) a human standing or sitting erect, while zha usually expresses “behind” (or “at the buttocks of”) a four-legged animal. Of course we don’t say “at the buttocks of” in English. What’s important to realize is that Zapotec expresses “behind” and many other prepositional ideas quite differently from English (or Spanish), especially with human or animal prepositional objects.

Next, consider the relationship of the toy woman and deer in Fot Xon. In English, we might say The woman is behind the deer, but you can’t use either dets or zha in Zapotec. Use the imaginary line technique and draw a line from the woman to the deer. The line goes to the deer’s side, so the best answer to the question Cuan mna? is Mna zu cwe bzeiny. Once again, English prepositions and Zapotec prepositions work differently!

_{Fot Ga xte Lecsyony Galy. Mna cuan bzeiny.}

Listen carefully as you hear Zapotec speakers use prepositions with humans and animals as references and you will learn lots more about their use. The imaginary line technique will normally help you figure out what to say.

Tarea Chon xte Lecsyony Galy.

Answer the questions about the pictures below in Zapotec. If an item is given in parentheses, use it as a reference, as in the example. Pay attention to the invisible lines! Finally, translate your answers into English.

_{Fot Tsë xte Lecsyony Galy.}

Example. Cuan bdo? (zhyet)

Answer. Bdo zu zha zhyet. “The baby is standing behind the cat.”

a. Cuan mes? (zhyet)

b. Cuan gyizhily? (zhyet)

c. Cuan mniny? (zhyet)

d. Cuan zhyet? (bdo)

e. Cuan zhyet? (gyizhily)

f. Cuan zhyet? (mes)

g. Cuan becw? (zhyet)

h. Cuan zhyet? (becw)

_{Fot Tsëbteby xte Lecsyony Galy. Teiby buny Dizhsa cuan tap ryengw. Roger, Brook, Roberto (Bet), Panfila (Lia Pam), and Allen at a guelaguetza in Los Angeles}

i. Tu zu cwe Bet?

j. Tu zu cwe Roger?

k. Tu zu lai Lia Brook cuan Lia Pam?

§20.4. Putting things in locations

Many of the locational verbs that you learned in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon are related to verbs that refer to putting things (or people or animals) in locations. Here are the new verbs:

These words are used in sentences that have four parts: a verb, a subject, an object, and a location phrase. Here are some examples of how these verbs are used:

As you can see, each of these words refers to putting something in a location in a particular position or orientation. Each one could also be translated with “puts” (and often, in English, this will sound better), but in Zapotec it’s important to use a verb that specifies the exact position of the object. Here’s the pattern:

Of course, imperatives like the last example don’t have subjects (though you know the subject is “you”!), and it’s possible to focus the subject, object, or location phrase to change this basic pattern.

The habitual stems of most of the verbs listed above look just like the habitual stems of some of the locational verbs that you learned in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon. But these “puts” verbs are different from the locational verbs in two ways. First, these verbs do not have corresponding neutral forms. Second, the irrealis stems of these new “puts” verbs are different from the irrealis stems of the locational verbs. The irrealis stems of the “puts” verbs use the regular irrealis prefix y– rather than starting with s:

Both types of verbs are used with locational phrases. In addition, the new “puts” verbs are all used with objects, while the locational verbs don’t have objects.

Finally, here’s another “puts” verb that is not related to a locational verb:

Unlike the other “puts” verbs, this one has a normal irrealis (yguixga). But it’s used in the same “puts” pattern as the other new verbs.

Locational and “puts” verbs don’t always have andative forms that speakers are comfortable using. You can ask your teacher what he or she thinks about these.

Listen to the way speakers of Valley Zapotec use the words in this section. Sometimes speakers will omit lo with them. One such case might be when the words are plural. There are two ways to say the next sentence:

In this case, when lo nya refers to more than one field, and it’s a normal object, many speakers feel it’s ok to omit lo following the plural marker ra.

_{Fot Tsëbtyop xte Lecsyony Galy. An altar in a home in San Lucas.}

§20.6. More about expressing location

Expressing locations without prepositions. To say that an event takes place in a town or city, you might expect to use a word meaning “in”, but lany is never used in such cases in Valley Zapotec. Most commonly, speakers use no preposition at all with large locations like these:

The same thing happens when you’re talking about going in the direction of a large location or arriving at a large location. With a smaller location, lany or another preposition is correct, as in

However, with the name of a town or another large location, speakers usually give the location without a preposition:

If you listen to Zapotec conversations you’ll notice two additional things. First, sometimes it’s hard to know whether a location counts as “large”. In the examples below, “school”, “restaurant”, and “the Comedor Mary” are used without an “in” or “at” preposition (even though lany might also be appropriate at times, as in the “into a building” sentence above):

Listen, and see if you can discover when the Zapotec speakers you know feel that a location is “large”! The decision may involve whether the speaker is thinking about an actual building, or not.

(Houses are special in Zapotec, however. You’ll learn more about expressing location of houses and relative to houses in Lecsyony Galyabteiby. For now, don’t try to do this!)

Ni na for “in”. A final point to notice is that sometimes Zapotec speakers use ni na [nih nàa] before large location names. Here are some examples:

(The last example contains universida with no preposition and ni na before San Diegw!) In the Ra Dizh for this lesson and Blal xte Tiu Pamyël, ni na is translated as “in”, but you can’t use ni na everywhere you can use lany. It may seem as though it’s most common to hear ni na before borrowed names, but since ni na can be used with Bac (as in the second example above), that’s not a regular rule. Once more, the best thing to do is to listen to how speakers use this phrase.