This is the first chapter of a continuing story, one section or part [pa’rt] of which will appear at the end of this and all following units of this book. The story is given below in ordinary spelling, followed by Ra Dizh and notes. After that comes a pronunciation guide version. At the very end of this section you will find a video recording of this story. Listen to the recording of the story, and follow along. Many of the words will be familiar to you, but others are new. Go over the vocabulary and notes following the story. With this help, you should be able to understand everything about the story, but you should ask your teacher about any parts you have trouble with. After you understand the story, listen to the recording again and try to repeat each sentence yourself. The more times you can listen to the recording, the better you’ll be able to use these new words and sentence patterns yourself.

_{Fot Teiby xte Blal xte Tiu Pamyël, Part Teiby. Street in San Lucas Quiaviní.
The 16th century church and Quiaviní Mountain are in the background.}

All Zapotec speakers know some Spanish, and even those whose Spanish is not at all fluent use some Spanish words in conversation. Many speakers also use English words, especially if they have lived in the United States or have relatives there (for example, Samohi is what local people call Santa Monica High School). Code-switching or going back and forth between languages is common among bilingual speakers all over the world. In the story, words in Spanish and English are written in italics, since Spanish and English spelling follow different rules from Valley Zapotec spelling.

§1. Blal xte Tiu Pamyël, Part Teiby

Jump to pronunciation guide

Cwen re na cwen xten Lia Len cuan Bed.

Elena Morales na la Lia Len cuan Dizhtily o cuan Ingles.

Buny San Luc Lia Len, per na Santa Mony nu Lia Len. Ricy nune Lia Len bzyan guny Lia Len cuan xtad Lia Len. Bzyanëng la Bed. Xtad Lia Len cuan Bed la Francisco, per rata ra buny reipy xtad Lia Len cuan Bed Chico. Chiecw reipy ra buny ni rgwe Dizhsa laëng. Xnan Lia Len cuan Bed, Bied Lia Zhuan, byan San Luc cuan xnanmam Lia Len cuan Bed, tyen uas racxu xnanman Lia Len cuan Bed.

Pedro Morales na la Bed cuan Dizhtily o cuan Ingles.

Santa Mony nune Bed, xtad Bed, cuan bzyan Bed, per lazh Bed na San Luc. Samohi ria Bed cuan Lia Len scwel. Uas dur na scwel tyen naru caseidy Bed cuan Lia Len Ingles chiru queity rgwezacdi Bed cuan Lia Len Dizhtily.

Lia Len rni —

Nu ra cos ni ryulaza lad re, per rnalaza ra xamiegwa ni byan San Luc, zicy ni na Lia Glory cuan Lia Tyen. Queity rgwedi ra zhyap ni ria scwel re Dizhsa. Per a rapa teiby amiegw cweby scwel ni la Lia Araceli. Uas gwen na Lia Araceli. Izylaza na re. Per uas rnalaza xnanmama.

Bed rni —

Lagza Samohi ria Mazh ni na buny San Luc. Uas rcyetlaza tyen lagza Dizhsa rgwe Mazh. Chiru rgyet ra buny San Luc basquetbol gal Sabad rsily. Uas rnalaza lo gueizh. Uas rnalaza xnana. Cwan o caculo xnana xyecwa? Per ra buny ni nu lany apartamen queity rapdi ra buny becw.

Jump to pronunciation guide

§2. Ra Dizh cuan Xiëru Zalo Ra Dizh

§2.1. Below are the new vocabulary words and expressions used in the story, listed in alphabetical order, just as in the Ra Dizh at the beginning of a lesson. You’ll learn more about using many of these words in later lessons. Most verbs are listed in the vocabulary in the habitual form (beginning with r-). Therefore, if the story contains a verb in the perfective (b-) or progressive (ca-) form, you should remove the perfective or progressive prefix and substitute r- to form the habitual and find the form of the verb listed below. (Any verb that works differently will have all forms you’ll be using in the story listed here.) Some words you already know, such as cuan, are listed here with additional meanings.

_{Fot Tyop xte Blal xte Tiu Pamyël, Part Teiby. Santa Monica High School (Samohi), Santa Monica, California, USA.}

§2.2. The story illustrates two things about Zapotec that you’ll learn more about in Lecsyony Xon.

• Plural nouns in Zapotec are formed with the word ra [ra] before the noun: ra cos “things”, ra zhyap “girls”.

• Zapotec verbs that have an “I” subject end with the ending -a [a’]: rnalaza “I miss”, rcyetlaza “I am happy”.

§2.3. Many of the verbs listed above don’t work exactly like the verbs you’ve learned about in the lessons in Unida Tyop. These include neutral verbs, verbs whose bases begin or end with vowels, and other IRREGULAR verbs (those whose stems don’t follow regular rules). For now, you should avoid using these verbs except in the stem forms you see used here or with noun or name subjects. (Complete lists of the forms of all irregular verbs are given in the Valley Zapotec Verb Charts.)

• The verbs in the vocabulary list above that don’t begin with the habitual prefix r- are NEUTRAL verbs (la, na, nu, nune) — often these start with an n, but not always. You’ll learn more about using neutral verbs in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon.

• Verbs like racxu, rap, ria, and reipy, whose bases start with vowels, form their perfectives and progressives differently from the verbs you’ve learned so far. You’ll learn more about using these verbs in Lecsyony Tsëbtyop, Lecsyony Tseinyabteby, and Lecsyony Tseinyabtyop.

• Verbs ending in vowels (including la, nu, nune, rcwa, racxu, rculo, rgwe, ria, and rni) work like the other verbs you’ve learned when used with noun or name subjects, but not when used with pronoun endings. You’ll learn more about using verbs like these in Lecsyony Tseiny (13) and Lecsyony Tseinyabtyop.

• Rgyet is an irregular verb. You’ll learn more about using irregular verbs in Lecsyony Tsëbteby. For now, you should use rgyet only in the habitual and progressive forms.

§2.4. You’ll learn more about using POSSESSED nouns, like bzyan “brother (of a female), sister (of a male)” in Lecsyony Tsëda (as you’ll learn in that lesson, these nouns are E-POSSESSED, meaning that they cannot be used without a possessor). These words use the same bound pronoun endings you are learning to use on verbs to indicate subjects (like proximate -ëng or -a “I”) to indicate possessors:  thus, bzyanëng can mean “her brother” or “his sister”, and bzyana means “my brother” (if a female uses this word) or  “my sister” (if a male uses this word).

You can express the possession of nouns that are not always possessed in two ways, as you’ll learn in Lecsyony Tsëda. First, the noun can be followed by xte [x:tèe’] or xten [x:tèe’n] plus a possessor noun: blal xte Tiu Pamyël “Señor Pánfilo’s blal, the blal of Señor Pánfilo”. Alternatively, the prefix x- can be added before a noun, forming a possessed form: xamiegwa “my friend”. Some words have a special possessed form: for example, xyecw [x:yèe’cw] is the possessed form of becw.

§2.5. You’ve probably noticed that some things are phrased quite differently in Valley Zapotec from they way they’d be said in English! For example, consider the following sentence:

If we translated this directly into English, it would be “There, Elena lives with Elena’s younger brother and Elena’s father.” But this probably sounds unnatural to you in English — it seems easier to say “There, Elena lives with her younger brother and her father.” In Valley Zapotec, as you’ll learn, repetition of nouns and especially names is much more common than in English — this is a very natural thing to say in Zapotec.

The last thing Pedro says in this story provides another example:

This is a NEGATIVE sentence which has a shortened copy of the subject after the verb. Translating directly, this sentence would be “But people who live in apartments, the people don’t have dogs.” But, once more, the translation with “they” seems more natural in English.

§2.6. Sometimes Valley Zapotec can tell a location without using a word like “in”, as in

It’s not necessary to use a word for “in” here. You’ll learn about how to say “in” and other Valley Zapotec PREPOSITIONS in Lecsyony Tseinyabchon (but you’ll see many examples of how to express location in later chapters of the story!).

§3. Xa Rni Buny Ra Dizh

bla’al x:tèe’ Ti’u Pá’mmyëll, pa’rt te’ihby

cwe’enn rèe’ nàa cwe’enn x:tèe’ Lia Leen cuahnn Beed.

Elena Morales nàa lah Lia Leen cuahnn Dìi’zhtiilly o cuahnn Inglehs.

bùunny Sann Lu’uc Lia Leen, pehr nah Sánntah Moony nu’uh Lia Leen. ri’cy nu’uhnèe Lia Leen bzyaàa’n gùuny Lia Leen cuahnn x:ta’ad Lia Leen. bzyaàa’nëng laa Beed. x:ta’ad Lia Leen cuahnn Beed laa Francisco, pehr ra’ta’ ra bùunny re’ihpy x:ta’ad Lia Leen cuahnn Beed Chico. Chi’ecw re’ihpy ra bùunny nih rgwèèe’ Dìi’zhsah la’a-ëng. X:nna’an Lia Leen cuahnn Beed, Bied Lia Zhùaan, byàa’an Sann Lu’uc cuahnn x:nna’anma’mm Lia Leen cuahnn Beed, tye’nn ua’s rahcx:ùu x:nna’anma’mm Lia Leen cuahnn Beed.

Pedro Morales nàa lah Beed cuahnn Dìi’zhtiilly o cuahnn Inglehs.

Sánntah Moony nu’uhnèe Beed x:ta’ad Beed cuahnn bzyaàa’n Beed, pehr la’ahzh Beed nàa Sann Lu’uc. Samohi rihah Beed cuahnn Lia Leen scweel. u’as duuar nàa scweel tye’nn nahru’ casèèi’dy Beed cuahnn Lia Leen Inglehs chiru’ que’ity rgwèe’za’cdi’ Beed cuahnn Lia Leen Dìi’zhtiilly.

Lia Leen rnnììi’:

nu’uh ra co’s nih ryu’làa’za’ làad rèe’, pehr rnalàa’za’ ra x:amie’gwa’ nih byàa’an Sann Lu’uc, zi’cy nih nàa Lia Gloory cuahnn Lia Tye’nn. que’ity rgwèe’di’ ra lia nih rihah scweel rèe’ Dìi’zhsah. pehr a ràa’pa’ te’ihby amie’gw cweeby scweel nih laa Lia Araceli. ihzylàa’za’ nàa rèe’. pehr u’as rnalàa’za’ x:nna’anma’mma’.

Beed rnnììi’:

làa’gza’ Samohi rihah Maazh nih nàa bùunny Sann Lu’uc. u’as rcye’tlàa’za’ tye’nn làa’gza’ Dìi’zhsah rgwèèe’ Maazh. chiru’ rgye’eht ra bùunny Sann Lu’uc basque’tbo’ll gàall Sáabahd rsìiilly. u’as rnalàa’za’ loh guee’ihzh. u’as rnalàa’za’ x:nna’ana’. cwàann caculoh x:nna’ana’ x:yèe’cwa’? pehr ra bùunny nih nu’uh làa’any apartame’enn que’ity ràa’pdi’ ra bùunny bèe’cw.

§4. Video Recording