S-7. Some Valley Zapotec Place Names

This section presents some place names in Valley Zapotec.

§1. First, here are some places in the Tlacolula Valley:

San Luc [Sann Lu'uc] San Lucas Quiaviní

Bac [Ba'ahc] Tlacolula (Tlacolula de Matamoros)

Xandan [Xanndaan] Santa Ana del Valle

Xgyia [X:gyìi'ah] Teotitlán del Valle

The Zapotec word for “Quiaviní” has several pronunciations, including Gyibni [Gyi'bnnii] and Gyimni [Gyi'mnnìi']. Most people who live in San Lucas refer to the pueblo as San Luc.

 

The full name of the city of Tlacolula is “Tlacolula de Matamoros”, but everyone calls it simply “Tlacolula”.


Fot Teiby. Boys playing basketball in front of the municipio (city hall) in San Lucas Quiaviní.


Fot Tyop. The Guish Bac (“City of Tlacolula”) hotel in Tlacolula, with the church in the background. (“Guish Bac” would be written as Gueizh Bac (or, for some speakers, Guëizh Bac) in our spelling system.)


Fot Chon. Street scene in Santa Ana del Valle.

 


Fot Tap. Dancing the danza de la pluma (feather dance) in Teotitlán del Valle.

§2. Next, here are the names of some places elsewhere in Mexico:

Ndua [Ndùu'ah] Oaxaca; Oaxaca City

Meijy [Me'ijy] Mexico; Mexico City

Tijwan [Tijwa'nn] Tijuana


Fot Gai. Balloon sellers on the zócalo (main square) in Oaxaca City.

§3. Finally, some places in the United States:

Los Angl [Lohs A'nngl] Los Angeles

Santa Mony [Sánntah Moony] Santa Monica

West Los Angl [We'st Lohs A'nngl] West Los Angeles

San Dyegw [Sann Dye'gw] San Diego

Califoryën [Cali'fóoryënn] California

Stados Unied [Stadohs Uniied] the United States

§4. You can use any place name after the word buny “person” to refer to a person from that place:

buny San Luc

“person from San Lucas”

buny Los Angl

“person from Los Angeles”

 

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Cali Chiu: A Course in Valley Zapotec by Pamela Munro, Brook Danielle Lillehaugen, Felipe H. Lopez, Brynn Paul, and Lillian Leibovich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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