In this lesson, you’ll learn about how to express “I” and “you” subjects and “me” and “you” objects in Zapotec. “I” subjects and the verbs they are used with are covered in sections §8.1–§8.2. Section §8.3 introduces the pre-verb word a, which is usually translated “already”. Informal “you” subjects and the verbs they are used with are presented in sections §8.4–§8.5. Section §8.6 introduces the “I/me” and “you” free pronouns. Another way to say “gives” is presented in section §8.7. Finally, section §8.8 explains how to use plural noun phrases, and section §8.9, number phrases.

_{Fot Teiby xte Lecsyony Xon. Baskets for sale in the market in Tlacolula.}

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 1. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

Xiëru Zalo Ra Dizh

1. You’ve already seen several sets of Zapotec words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently with different meanings (comparable to English bow, for example, which has different meanings depending on whether it is pronounced like bough or beau). Another example is a “already”, which sounds very different from a “yes”.

2. The word myegr can be used to refer to the whole border patrol or to an individual border patrol officer:

3. Rdyan has an irregular progressive form (see section §6.5). Irregular verb forms are listed in the Ra Dizh following the symbol §. You can also check the forms of any verb in the Valley Zapotec Verb Charts.

4. You learned the COUNTING NUMBERS at the end of Unida Teiby; in this lesson you’ll see how to use them in sentences.

§8.1. “I” subjects

In this lesson you’ll learn how to refer to yourself and the person you’re talking with in a conversation. To begin with, here are some sentences with “I” subjects:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 2. (With Geraldina López Curiel.)}

These sentences use a new ending, -a [a’], a bound pronoun which is added to a verb to indicate that its subject is “I”. This pronoun can be attached to any verb that would make sense for a speaker to use with him- or herself as the subject. As with the other bound pronouns you have learned, -a is not a separate word and must always be attached to the verb of its sentence.

Noun phrase objects may be focused in sentences like these, too, of course:

Since -a begins with a vowel, the ending -di that follows a negative verb becomes -dy before this pronoun:

§8.2. Changes in verbs with “I” subjects

Verbs like those in section §8.1, whose bases contain KCP, KP, KC, or CP vowel patterns, do not change their pronunciation when the -a pronoun “I” is added. However, most other types of verbs do change before “I”. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the types of changes that may occur, and how to refer to the Valley Zapotec Verb Charts for more information on verb forms.

Most verbs — almost all of those whose bases have CB, KKC, or BB vowel patterns — change their vowel pattern to CP before -a. Thus, for example, btyis has a CB vowel pattern, but btyisa has a CP pattern ([btyi’isa’]). Listen to your teacher read the following pairs of sentences, and you’ll hear the rising CP tone in the key syllable of the base of the verb before the -a ending of the “I” subject verbs:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 3. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

If you are in doubt as to what pronunciation to use for the base of a new verb with an “I” subject whose base does not have an KCP, KP, KC, or CP vowel pattern, a CP vowel pattern is the best guess.

A few verbs have other types of pronunciation changes in the “I” subject form, however. As you learned in Lecsyony Gaz, rbany “wakes up”, with a B vowel pattern, does not change in the combination form — the pronunciation of the base of rbanyi is the same as that of rbany in independent form:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 4. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

But, as you’ve learned, the B vowel pattern of the base changes to a KC pattern before -ëng, and the same change occurs before -a ([rbàa’nnya’]):

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 5. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

Most verbs with B vowel patterns, however, like the others you saw earlier, change their vowel pattern to CP in the “I” subject form. This change occurs with rzeny [rzehnny]: rzenya [rze’ennya’], for example.

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 6. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

The best way to learn the pronunciation of the “I” forms of different verbs is to listen carefully to your teacher’s examples and the recordings and then to practice saying them yourself. If you learn the “I” subject form of a new verb when you learn the verb stem, that will help.

§8.3. Verb phrases beginning with a

A [a] is a useful word that is often used in both questions and other types of sentences, most commonly with perfective verbs, as in these little dialogues:

A is often translated “already”, but sometimes it does not have this meaning. A is used before a verb, at the beginning of a verb phrase, to let you know something about the completion of the verb. A sentence with a is often translated into English with a sentence containing has (or have), as in the examples.

A VERB PHRASE is a sequence of two or more words that together express a verb idea, like a plus a following verb word. A focused noun phrase goes before the whole verb phrase:

Although a “already” is written the same way as the bound subject pronoun -a “I”, the two are not pronounced the same, and they are not used the same either. A “already” always goes before a verb word, and the pronoun -a “I” (which has a C vowel) is always attached at the end of a word. You can use the two of them together, too:

(As you know already, Zapotec has many sets of words and word parts that are written the same but pronounced differently. A “yes” is another different a! Don’t forget that you can always consult the pronunciation guide if you forget how to pronounce any Zapotec word.)

_{Fot Tyop xte Lecsyony Xon. Flowers on an altar decorated for Easter in San Lucas Quiaviní.}

§8.4. “You” subjects

Here are some sentences with “you” subjects, using the “you” subject pronoun -u [ùu’].

Like the -i, –ëng, and -a subject pronouns, –u is a bound pronoun that cannot be used by itself but must always be attached to the verb of its sentence.

In English, we use the same word “you” whether we are speaking to one person or to many — these are all “you” in English. (Of course, it’s possible to indicate that you are speaking to more than one person by saying things like “you all” or “you guys”, but it’s most common just to say “you”.) Moreover, the English word “you” doesn’t change whether it’s used as a subject (as in You hit him) or as an object (as in He hit you).

Like many other languages, however, Valley Zapotec has different words for all these uses of “you” — the new pronoun -u is only used as a subject, and only when you are referring to just one person, a singular “you” (abbreviated “sg.”). Zapotec speakers make an additional distinction involving “you” as well. The -u pronoun is only used when you are speaking with people your own age or younger, usually people you know well. It expresses an INFORMAL “you” (abbreviated “inf.”). Conservative Valley Zapotec speakers do not use the informal -u even when addressing their parents.

Thus, the -u pronoun is used when talking informally to one person, who is the subject of your sentence. You’ll learn how to express a more formal “you”, as well as plural “you”, in Lecsyony Ga.

§8.5. Changes in verbs with informal “you” subjects

Verbs whose independent form contains a KCP, KP, KC, or CP vowel pattern, like those in section §8.1, do not change their vowel pattern in the informal “you” form. For most other verbs, the combination form is used before -u.

Thus, verbs with a KKC pattern use their combination form (with its KC vowel pattern) before -u. Listen to your teacher pronounce the following sets of sentences:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 7. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

You can hear that the key syllable of the verb base sounds shorter (in the combination form) before -u, -i, and -ëng than in the independent form without a pronoun ending.

In these verbs, the vowel pattern is different before -u, -i, and -ëng than before -a, where the combination form is not used but a CP pattern is used instead:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 8. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

Compare these verbs with the -u, -i, and -ëng subject forms of the same verbs above, and you’ll hear the difference in the pronunciation of the base.

Verbs with CB and BB vowel patterns also change their vowel pattern to CP before -a, and they make the same change before -u. Again, compare the following sets of verbs as your teacher reads them aloud:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 9. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

Verbs with CB vowel patterns do not change in the combination form, but usually change to CP before both the -u and -a pronouns. Verbs with BB vowel patterns like rsubiaz have PB patterns in the combination form, but again change to a CP pattern before -a and -u. In each group above, the last two verbs are different from the others.

Rbany “wakes up” has the same change to a KC pattern that you heard with -ëng and -a subjects:

^{Lecsyony 8, Video 10. (With Ana López Curiel.)}

Zapotec verbs with “I” and “you” subjects are easy to spell, but harder to learn to pronounce. The best thing is to learn the “I” and informal “you” form of a verb when you learn the verb stem. But following the rules here, you will often be able to make a good guess as to the right form to use with a new verb.

§8.6. “I”/”me” and “you” free pronouns

The free pronoun for “I” and “me” is naa [nàa’], and the free pronoun for “you” (informal singular) is liu [lìu’]. You can use these pronouns for both objects and focused subjects, just as with laëng and lai.

Remember that with a focused subject pronoun, there always has to be a bound pronoun following the verb:

These sentences would make no sense without the subject pronouns -a and -u on their verbs.

As you learned in Lecsyony Gaz, free pronoun objects cannot be focused.

§8.7. Another way to say “gives”

In Lecsyony Gai you learned the word rdeidy “gives”, used in sentences like

In these sentences, the objects are laëng and mes — those who are given something are people who are not involved in the conversation. If you want to talk about someone giving something to yourself (the speaker) or to the person you’re talking with (the hearer), however, you have to use a different “give” verb, rnizh, as in

Thus, when the recipient is one of the people involved in the conversation, use rnizh instead of rdeidy. Rdeidy refers only to giving something to someone other than the speaker or the hearer.

§8.8. Plural nouns

All the sentences we’ve used so far have contained only singular nouns, nouns referring to only one individual or one object. To make a Zapotec noun plural, you need to use the plural word ra ([ra]) in front of the noun, as in the following sentences:

(Plural is abbreviated as “pl.”.) You can use a plural noun phrase as either a subject or an object, focused or not, as in these examples. Usually these plural noun phrases are translated into English with “the”, but not always — it depends on the context.

When ra is used in a re [rèe’] “this” or re [rèe] “that” noun phrase, you’ll use “these” or “those” in the English translation:

In English, we use the plural ending -s every time we refer to a plural noun, but Zapotec ra is often omitted by speakers when they are not emphasizing a noun’s plurality, especially when the noun in question does not refer to living creatures. The following examples show that a noun without ra can sometimes be translated in the plural as well as the singular:

When you listen to spoken Zapotec, you’ll hear many more examples of plural nouns that don’t use ra. (This is especially common when other nouns or pronouns in the sentence are plural.) In this book, we will normally use ra with every plural noun referring to humans or animals. (There’s one exception, which you’ll learn about in the next section.)

_{Fot Chon xte Lecsyony Xon. Ra zhyap.
Girls making a purchase outside the church in Teotitlán del Valle.}

§8.9. Number phrases

In Zapotec, numbers go right before the noun, just as in English.

Ra is not usually used along with number words, even when the plural noun used with the number refers to a person or other living creature.

Noun phrases containing numbers, both subjects and objects, are very often focused. Usually this does not indicate as much emphasis as other focus sentences.

In translations of sentences in this book, we will not indicate special emphasis on focused number phrases.

Only the numbers from one to ten are introduced in this lesson’s Ra Dizh, but any of the counting numbers given at the end of Unida Teiby can be used in the same ways.

Prefixes and Endings

-a [a’] I (bound pronoun)

-u [ùu’] you (informal singular bound pronoun)

Abbreviations

inf. informal

sg. singular

pl. plural

Just for fun! Complete the crossword puzzle below in Zapotec using the following clues.