S-9. More Useful Phrases
Here are some questions and answers you may hear if you spend time with Zapotec people. You’ll learn more about forming such expressions in later lessons.
Informal “you” is not specially marked here. Formal “you” is marked as “(form.)”.
| Dizhsa | Ingles | Xa Rni Buny Ra Dizh |
| A soo choën? | “Are you coming with us?” | [a sòo’ chòo’-ëhnn?] |
| A zau guet? | “Are you going to eat?” | [a za’ùu’ gueht?] |
| A zeu Bac? | “Are you going to Tlacolula?” | [a zèu’ Ba’ahc?] |
| Tu loo? | “What’s your name?” | [tu lòo’?] |
| Tu layu? | “What’s your (form.) name?” | [tu lahyuu’?] |
| Jwany laa. | “My name is Juan.” | [Jwaany laàa’] |
| Lia Len laa. | “My name is Elena.” | [Lia Leen laàa’] |
| Tu la xamiegwu? | “What’s your friend’s name?” | [tu lah x:amiegwùu’?] |
| Lia Glory laëng. | “Her name is Gloria.” | [Lia Gloory làa’-ëng] |
| Baly iaz nuu?, Balyd iaz nuu? |
“How old are you?” | [bàally iihahz nu’-u’?, bàallyd iihahz nu’-ùu’?] |
| Galy iaz nua. | “I’m twenty.” | [Gàally iihahz nu’-a’] |
| Cali na liazu? | “Where do you live?” | [Cali nàa li’azùu’?] |
| Bac na liaza. | “I live in Tlacolula.” | [Ba’ahc nàa li’aza’] |
| Lemon Grove na liaza. | “I live in Lemon Grove.” | [Lemon Grove nàa li’aza’] |
For the most part, as you know, Valley Zapotec spellings do not incude sequences of two identical vowels. However, you’ll notice that some of the words above — laa [laàa’] “my name”, loo [lòo’] “your name”, nuu [nu’-ùu’] “you are” — include double vowels. As explained in Lecsyony Chon (§3.1), two vowels are written together because they indicate separate elements of the word. You’ll learn more about this in Lecsyony Tseiny (13).
To answer a question like Bal iaz nuu?, you need to know numbers! As you saw in section S-5, many Valley Zapotec speakers do not know Zapotec numbers higher than tsë “ten”. Therefore, even if you don’t know Spanish, you may find it helpful to learn the Spanish numbers. (This will certainly be useful if you travel in Mexico!)
