This lesson introduces several different new verb forms. Perfective verbs are presented in section §6.1, along with the concepts of verb stems and bases. Section §6.2 presents imperatives, and section §6.3 sentences with indefinite objects. Section §6.4 presents progressive verbs. Section §6.5 introduces the concept of irregular verbs, and section §6.6 verbs that can be used in more than one sentence pattern. The use of cuan “and, with” is described in section §6.7.

_{Fot Teiby xte Lecsyony Xop. Geraniums on a patio in Tlacolula.}

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 1. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Xiëru Zalo Ra Dizh

1. As you study more Zapotec, you will learn other words and expressions that end in xtily [xtiilly] (or sometimes tily [tiilly]), such as guetxtily and Dizhtily. This word or ending (derived from a word borrowed from Spanish Castilla “Castile” (a part of Spain)) is a clue that the item referred to — such as bread or the Spanish language — was introduced to Zapotec speakers long ago by early Spanish settlers in Oaxaca.

2. Rnab is often used to refer to an immigrant in the United States sending for someone once he has begun to earn money and found a place to live. Thus, Rnab Jwany Bed means “Juan sends for Pedro (to come and join him in the United States).”

§6.1. Perfective verbs

Below are some Zapotec sentences that refer to the past.

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 2. (With Dr. Felipe H. Lopez.)}

These sentences have verbs in the PERFECTIVE form, with b- prefixes. The most common way to make a verb perfective is to drop the r- from the habitual form of the verb and substitute a b-. (The abbreviation for “perfective” is “perf.”.) Perfective verbs refer to actions that are completed, normally in the past.

Rzhuny and bzhuny are two STEMS of the Zapotec verb “run”. A stem usually includes a prefix (such as r- or b-) plus a BASE, which for “run” is zhuny. (In this case, and for most verbs, the base is the same in both stems of the verb. As you’ll learn later, some verbs have different bases in different stems.) Rzhuny is the habitual stem of the verb, and bzhuny is the perfective stem. Similarly, the habitual stem of the base duax “bark” is rduax and the perfective stem of “bark” is bduax.

Just as in habitual sentences, one noun phrase in a perfective sentence may be focused. With an ordinary noun, focus indicates strong emphasis (indicated by underlining in the English translation). You should almost always put a noun followed by re “this” or re “that” in the focus position before the verb, but for these noun phrases, focus does not have the same emphatic meaning, so the “this” and “that” phrases are not underlined in the translations.

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 3. (With Dr. Felipe H. Lopez.)}

Nai [nài’] “yesterday” can be used to tell when a perfective event occurs:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 4. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Nai is an ADVERB, a word that gives more information about the event or state named by the verb — for instance, when or how or where that event or state occurs. Most often, adverbs go before the verb, but sometimes they may come at the end of the sentence (after the object, if there is one). It is so common for adverbs to go at the beginning that they don’t usually express a focus meaning — thus, the first nai example above doesn’t really have to be translated “The child ran yesterday”.

You’ve learned that both “this” and “that” phrases and adverbs like nai often go before the verb in a Zapotec sentence. But what if a sentence contains more than one of these items, or one of these plus another phrase that the speaker wants to focus? Normally, only one phrase can come before the verb, so in such cases the speaker needs to make a choice as to which item is most important.

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 5. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Try making up some other such sets of sentences, and see what your teacher thinks.

Some verbs work differently from the ones in the examples above. Compare the following habitual and perfective verbs:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 6. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Verbs whose habitual stem starts with rn have perfective stems that start with mn. In other words, before a verb base beginning with n, the perfective prefix is not b-, but m-.

(Speakers may vary. Some speakers may use b- as the perfective prefix before n. You should follow your teacher’s usage.)

Here is another habitual/perfective pattern:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 7. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

_{Fot Tyop xte Lecsyony Xop. The bell in the tower of the church in San Lucas Quiaviní.}

Verbs whose habitual stem starts with rb do not form their perfective stem with the b- prefix. Many of them use w- instead, as in the above examples.

(As you learned in Unida Teiby, w before a consonant may sound like a [u] to you. Listen as your teacher pronounces words like wbany [wbahnny] and wbix [wbi’ihx].)

Rata zhi [ra’ta’ zh:ih] “every day” is an adverb (actually, an adverb phrase) that can be used in habitual sentences:

You’ll learn additional ways to make verbs perfective in later lessons. A few verbs, however, do not have a perfective stem. Here is an example:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 9. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Ryulaz “likes” is not usually used in the perfective. Most speakers use the habitual even when referring to the past. (Maybe this is because liking is a sort of habitual thing….)

§6.2. Imperatives

Here are some IMPERATIVES (verb forms used to give commands; abbreviated “imp.”):

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 10. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

The perfective stem of a verb can be used as an imperative. These imperatives are used to give orders to a person the speaker feels superior to or considers to be his or her equal. (Imperatives are just one type of COMMAND. In Lecsyony Tsë, you’ll learn to form commands that are used to groups of people, to a superior, or in a formal situation.)

When you are speaking to a child or someone you are on very familiar terms with, you can add as or as nia before the imperative. By itself, as means “hey” or “hi”, and as nia has a similar meaning. These words can be used before commands, often in situations where the  command is being repeated, just as we might use “hey!” in English. These commands are a little less polite, especially with as!.

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 11. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

You will learn some ways to make commands more polite in Lecsyony Ga.

Objects in imperatives are not very often focused, but when they are, the meaning is very emphatic:

§6.3. Indefinite objects

Almost all the object nouns you’ve seen so far in Zapotec sentences have referred to specific, identifiable things or people, either names (like Jwany or Lia Petr or Dizhsa) or nouns which could be translated into English with “the”, or which refer to items in a mass, like nyis “water” in

To refer to a single INDEFINITE object, a single item that is not specific or identifiable, you use the word teiby:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 13. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Teiby lapy and teiby liebr are noun phrases. Here, teiby can be translated by the English words “a” or “an”. (As you saw in section S-5, teiby is also the number “one”. If you think about it, these concepts are not that different.)

Occasionally, speakers choose not to use teiby even when the object is indefinite. In this book, however, we’ll assume that when the object of a sentence is a single indefinite item, it should be used with teiby.

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 18. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

The best way to learn irregular verb forms is to memorize them, and practice using them so that you become very familiar with their sound. Irregular forms of a verb are always listed in that verb’s entry in the Rata Ra Dizh, and from now on they will appear in the Ra Dizh at the beginning of the lesson as well. You can also check the Valley Zapotec Verb Charts.

Here is another verb that can be used in two sentence patterns:

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 23. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Rnyity means “gets lost” when it is used just with a subject noun, as in the first sentence in the examples above. However, when it is used with two nouns, as in the second sentence, this verb means “is missing (something)” or “has lost (something)” — in this case, the first noun is the subject (the person who has lost something) and the second is the object (the thing that is missing). (In this usage, it’s better to use the progressive than the habitual.)

§6.7. Cuan “and; with”

Cuan [cuahnn] (also pronounced quën [quëhnn]) means both “and” and “with”. When it corresponds to English and, cuan is used to join two nouns or names, as in sentences like

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 24. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Cuan can be used to join either subjects or objects, focused or not, as the examples show. When cuan means “and”, it joins two noun phrases to form a larger noun phrase

Cuan can also be used to say “with”, as in

^{Lecsyony 6, Video 25. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

As you can see, the first Zapotec sentence has two slightly different English translations. (The English sentences Elena is jumping with Pedro and Elena and Pedro are jumping are not really that different in meaning!) However, the second example can only be translated with “with”. Normally, only the “with” meaning is possible when the two noun phrases are separated from each other, as in this example.

Tarea Tsë xte Lecsyony Xop.

Read each of the following Zapotec sentences out loud. Then translate the sentences into English.

a. Teiby mansan canyity zhyap.

b. Mnyity plum cuan liebr.

c. Mnyity mes teiby lapy.

d. Rnyity teiby fot.

e. Mniny rnyity muly.

f. Buny cuan mna mnyity muly.

g. Bguad manyser cuan banua teiby mniny.

h. Mna casudieby nyis cuan zhyap.

Prefixes

b- [b] (perfective verb prefix)

ca- [ca] (progressive verb prefix)

cal- [cal] (irregular form of ca-)

can- [can] (irregular form of ca-)

m- [m] (perfective verb prefix for bases beginning with n)

w- [w] (perfective verb prefix for bases beginning with b)

Abbreviations

imp. imperative

perf. perfective

prog. progressive

 

Just for fun!

First, write down a Zapotec word suggested by each of the pictures below.  Then find each Zapotec one in the Word Search that follows.