Zapotec language: Verb Classes in Didza Xidza

Didza Xidza Zapotec is one of three Zapotec language s spoken in the area known as the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca.

The other two Zapotec languages are 1) Didza Xhun/Dilla Xhon (Cajonos Zapotec); 2) Didza Le’aj (Serrano Zapotec).

The variety of Xidza Zapotec presented here is mainly that of the town of Santa Cruz Yagavila.

Here, we will simply be referring to Xidza since dialectical differences between communities are still being investigated (see Cruz Miguel, in progress).¹The aspects of verb morphology seem to generally apply to different Xidza communities, however, one difference between communities is the vowel that is used, i.e., /u/- /o/, /i/-/e/ alternations.

Vowels and consonants of Didza Xidza Zapotec

The tables below illustrate the sound system in Xidza with the current orthography.²This orthography is used in the courses offered by the Bëni Xidza collective and is still being developed by Rayo Cruz and the collective.

The symbols in brackets represent the IPA symbol for the sound represented.

The tones and phonation of the language are still being investigated, however, Xidza does seem to have both contrastive tone and phonation, withsome glottalized and rearticulated vowels as in related languages such as Lachioriag Zapotec (Solà-Llonch, 2021).

TABLE 1, 2 and 3

Lenis – Fortis pairs.⁴4. These last three columns are based on some observations in the data but need to be further investigated. ⁵5 The reason for having the tx as a possible fortis counterpart for r, is explained in section XIII.

Some morphology features of Rincon Zapotec language

The default word order in Xidza is VSO.

Verbs are primarily constructed as follows: TAM prefix + stem + pronominal clitic.

Below, Table 4 contains some of the TAM prefixes common in Xidza, and Table 5 includes a list of pronouns and their corresponding pronominal clitics.

As Perez Baez and Kaufman (2016) point out, it is important to understand the phonological changes that have occurred historically in Zapotec languages in order to understand the realization of TAM prefixes,⁶This is particularly true of the potential (or potential) marker since fortition plays a role in its realization. such changes can be found in other closely related languages (Beam de Azcona, 2017, Beam de Azcona, 2016, Beam de Azcona 2015, Kaufman, 1989, Martinez Perez, 2019).

⁷7. This only appears in andatives and needs to be investigated further. ⁸8. Often the g- TAM prefix merges with a g-initial stem so that the potential form of a verb begins with /k/. However, it is often found that the potential form begins with the fortis counterpart of the verb stem’s initial consonant, see Table #

⁹9 This set of clitics has been found with -‘i final verb stems. ¹⁰10 Many of the verbs in Xidza have alternate plural clitics as well, however, they are accompanied by a change in the verb stem. These forms need to be further investigated.

A brief explanation of the analysis

Here, I will begin by using the verb classes in Báez and Kaufman (2016) used for analyzing Juchitán Zapotec as a basis for categorizing Xidza verbs, as seen in Table 6.

Then, I will present other classes found in Xidza Zapotec in Table 7.

Of course, the verb classes do not exactly match what is found in Juchitán Zapotec, but the classifications are remarkably similar.

I have also added another class of verbs, which seems to follow a regular pattern.

The corpus used for the analysis is the Didza Xidza Conjugación de Verbos del Zapoteco del Rincón de la Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca (Merne and Cruz, 2014), which is made up of almost 1500 conjugated verbs.

While a more thorough analysis is needed, what is presented here are general observations that have been made thus far, and are by no means a final analysis of verb conjugation patterns in Didza Xidza.

For the sake of simplicity, the verb classes will only be presented in 3S inanimate since in this form of the verb, the pronominal clitic is often null; thus it is easier to identify the verb stem.

However, some examples of how clitics interact with the verb stem will be given at the end.

In addition to the aforementioned categories, I will later present two more classes; one of these includes verbs that do not follow any of the patterns discussed here, thus being classified as irregular verbs.

The other involves the vowel hierarchy mentioned by Báez and Kaufman (2016), as part of the vowel simplification process.

This is left to the end of the discussion since the interaction between verb stems and pronominal clitics influences the surface forms of these verbs.

TABLE 6

Verb classes in Didza Xidza (Rincon Zapotec)

¹¹11. Generally, these are b-initial or g-initial stems, followed by i, e, ë, u, or w.
¹²12. There are very few cases of vowel-initial stems in Xidza in this category, one of these is «eats» r-agu. 13. I’m analyzing these verbs as having glide-initial stems since the completive form of most of these verbs appears with an initial glide (which is lost in the completive and potential forms but remains in the habitual, stative and definitive forms). ¹³14. One exception here is the verb «spins» in which instead of the y, the stem appears in the expected aspects as i-initial (and the stemvowel is realized as -a’, as a checked vowel, which is not usually the case in TAMs. ¹⁴15. This is not respectively. That is, the l or r may replace either the gu- or the -b initial stem.

Class A Verbs

As can be seen above, Class A verb stems can begin with either a consonant or one of two vowels, u- or -ë. The habitual prefix is always r- and the completive b-.

In Table 7, we can see the verb «bends down,» in the completive form, the glide at the beginning of the verb stem merges with the completive prefix b-.

It is actually quite common to have similar sounds merge, though more so in the potential form, as can be seen in the table above (epenthesis can also occur, as will be seen later with the interaction between verb stems and pronominal clitics).

On the other hand, the potential, stative, and definitive prefixes will vary depending on whether the stem is consonant or vowel-initial.

Consonant-initial stems will have the potential prefix i’- and the stative and definitive prefixes will be na- and wa- respectively.

Examples of Class A verbs can be seen in Table 7 below.

¹⁵16. As Table 5 shows, the verb «sees» takes pronominal clitics II. ¹⁶17. Conjugated like «sana,» vomita,», «vuelve a dormir,» «regresa,» «vuelve a secarse,» «vuelve a vestirse,» «tiene frío,» «se refresca,» «vuelve a comer,» «vuelve a llevarse algo, «tiene flojera,» «baja a un lugar,» «se satisface con comida,» «entrega,» «se entristece,» «contesta» (con didza). Neut =nu-

Class B Verbs:

Class B Verbs always have consonant-initial verb stems.

While the habitual prefix is usually r-, it becomes ri-, if the stem is r-initial.

So far, these verb stems have been found to start with –ru- (as can be seen in the verb «yawns» rirusa’).

This class of verbs uses the most common completive prefix, gu-, without causing any change to the verb stem.

The potential, stative, and definitive prefixes, i-, na-, and wa- respectively also do not generally effect any change to the verb stem.

This can be seen in Table 8 below.

Class C Verbs

Class C verbs always have consonant-initial stems.

All the aspects use the most common prefixes.

That is, r- for habitual, gu- for completive, na- for stative, and wa- for definitive, without causing any change to the stem.

What makes this class different from the others is that while there appears to be a null potential marker, the potential marker is actually expressed as fortition of the stem.

In other words, the verb stem initial consonant becomes fortis in the potential form, and that is the only change that takes place.

It is possible to analyze this as having a g- prefix in the potential that merges with the stem-initial consonant, thus causing fortition.

This is very possible given the sort of morphophonological interactions that can be seen in Xidza, and in other verb classes as well.

What is very clear is that for this class of verbs, fortition becomes, at least in its surface form, the indicator of the potential aspect.

¹⁷18. Conjugated like «tiene hambre.» ¹⁸19. Conjugated like «se pone de pie,» «está de pie,» «se emborracha,» «camina.» ¹⁹20. Conjugated like «confiessa.» ²⁰21. Conjugated like «acepta,» «tiene un animal asido con las manos.» ²¹22. There is an unexpected change in the verb stem initial consonant from z- to xh.

Class D Verbs

The stem alternations found in this verb class are like those found in Kaufman’s Class D verbs (Báez and Kaufman, 2016).

While the completive prefix is gu-, as with most classes, the |stem-initial consonant undergoes a morphological change from b-²²It is interesting to note that the verb stems in this class usually begin with be- or bë-. or gw- to r- or l-.

Furthermore, as in the Class C verbs above, the potential surface form undergoes fortition.

In this case, the initial consonant of the potential aspect form is realized as k-, the fortis counterpart of the potential aspect prefix, g-, and the stem’s initial consonant no longer appears in the surface form.

Thus, the combination of g- potential marker + the b²³This b- may have been /kw/ historically.-/ gw- initial stem results in the fortition of the potential marker, from g- to k-.

Furthermore, since the b- initial stem has been reconstructed as kw– in Proto-Zapotec (Báez and Kaufman, 2016, Beam de Azcona, 2017, Beam de Azcona, 2016, Beam de Azcona 2015, Kaufman, 1989).²⁴It may be that we see a remnant of that in the verb «goes up» in the potential form, in Table 10, where the potential form is kwen, not *ken.

Tables 10-13 provide examples of Class D verbs.

Table 10 shows the initial verb stem b- being replaced with r- in the completive, while Table 11 shows the initial verb stem b- being replaced with l- in the completive, and in both of these tables the potential form surfaces as k-.²⁵Note that these verbs all begin with bë-.

Table 12 similarly shows a g- to d- alternation in the completive form of the verb stem, while Table 13 has a surprising bi- initial stem being replaced with dxi- in the completive aspect.

Both of these subclasses of the Class D verbs, however, continue to have the k- initial potential form.

Furthermore, both Tables 11 and 13, which have verbs with b-initial stems, show a strong preference for a kw-initial potential form.

²⁶27. Progresivo: rëëz / zuaz

Class D-l verbs, are still Class D verbs in that verb stem initial consonant is replaced in the completive form.

However, this class seems to have a preference for the labiovelar plosive in the potential form of the verb.

One other interesting entry in this table is «chops wood», whose initial consonant stem is surprisingly gu-, unlike the other verbs in this category which tend to have a b- initial verb stem.

²⁷28. Como «amontona» (rbeki, guleki, kueki).

Another instance of a b-initial stem triggering kw / ku.

Here, however, the b- initial stem remains unchanged.

The verb «orders, commands,» seen below, follows the pattern of Class D-l verbs, except for the fact that the expected b-l replacement does not occur in the completive form of the verb.

Instead, the verb stem remains unchanged in the completive form, which, as in the D-l Class verbs, has a gu- aspectual prefix.

Báez and Kaufman (2016) include subdivisions of Class D verbs.

Similarly, subdivisions have been found in Xidza verbs.

For Xidza verbs, I have classified two tiers of subdivisions.

The first subdivision indicates the replacive, what the stem’s initial consonant is replaced with.

However, Báez and Kaufman create subdivisions based on whether the verb stem begins with a consonant or a vowel.

There is a similar subdivision in Xidza verbs with a d- replacive.

This can be seen in Tables 12 and 12a. In Class D-dc verbs, which have consonant-initial stems, that consonant, usually g-, is replaced with d-.

²⁸29. Como «juega,» «busca». ²⁹30. 1s, 2s, and 3s sr stem = /a/ ellipsis ³⁰31. Como «defeca,» «reparte,» «se lava el cabello,» «se lava las manos,»toca / manosea,» «da palmadas,» «vierte líquido en un recipiente,» «respira,» » abraza cariñosamente,» «muerde,» «pellizca,»rasca,»reparte,»zurce.» ³¹32. As far as we can tell, the completive form of «watches over» and the completive form of «pats» are homonyms. ³²33. In this verb, there are interesting alternations in the verb stem between gu- and w-, which, while beyond the scope of the present study are interesting to note.

Class D-dx verbs are verbs with bi-initial stems which are then replaced with dxi- in the completive, and the potential marker surfaces as k-, as a result of the underlying g- potential prefix + stem-initial b-, as seen throughout Class D verbs with consonant-initial stems.

It is interesting to note that this is the first case we have found thus far of Class D verbs with vowel-initial stems.

Class E Verbs

The distinguishing feature of Class E verbs is that they have a ts- or tsi- potential marker.

The tsi- potential marker appears to be used with consonant-initial verb stems (though more verbs need to be analyzed since so far «spins» is the only verb that fits this pattern).

Although the completive form is listed here as gu’-ikiaj (Merne and Cruz, also have rikiaj listed as the habitual form),³³This is the case for many verbs, whether or not there are communities and speakers that actually pronounce the vowel in the habitual stem is still being investigated (see Cruz, in progress). the stative and definitive forms have a consonant-initial stem.

Thus, I contend that the stem is in fact consonant-initial³⁴This is also based on the fact that for most verbs analyzed thus far, the verb stems tend to remain intact in both stative and definitive aspectual forms when the verb has these forms. and that there are morphononlogical factors that trigger i-epenthesis in the surface forms of the stems in the completive and potential forms.

As has been seen here, it is common for most such changes to affect these two aspectual forms of verbs in Xidza.

The ts- aspect marker seems to be used with stems that begin with a glide.

Here, again, the initial sound of the verb stem does not surface in the habitual form.

That is, the glide is not present in the habitual form, but it is found in the completive, stative, and definitive aspectual forms.

Here too, the morphophonological factors contributing to the realization of the ts- potential prefix need to be further investigated.

TABLE 14³⁵36. Como «se ahoga,» «se quema,» «se mete,»se acostumbra,» «se columpia» (con «bëë).

Irregular C-initial

Of course, there are many irregular verbs in Xidza, that is, verbs that do not follow the expected pattern (this can be seen in the previous tables, the rows that are highlighted indicate irregular verb patterns in one or more of the aspectual forms).

However, the following verb is particularly interesting since it is the only one we have seen so far with a potential tx- marker.

The verb «throws away,» below, in Table 15, would seem to fit perfectly with the Class B verbs.

In fact, one could expect the verb to behave like «yawns» in Table 8, and in many ways it does.

The habitual, completive, stative and definitive aspectual forms of the verb appear regular and behave like the verb «yawns.»

However, the potential form, instead of having the expected i- marker, behaves like the verb classes in which fortition merges the aspectual marker with the initial consonant of the verb stem.

If this is the case, then the fortis counterpart to r- is being realized here as tx-³⁶&&&It seems someone gave me a reference to someone who has found something similar. Ask if anybody has heard of this.

&&&Class Cv

Class Cv verbs have been an analytical challenge (Báez and Kaufman, 2016) particularly because of the vocalic interactions between the verb stems and the TAM markers in the Zapotec languages in which this class is occurs.

The TAMs in Class Cv verbs are mainly the same ones as those found in Class C verbs (the exception is with u- initial verb stems in which the completive aspect marker is b-); this is also understanding that the underlying potential marker in Class C verbs is g-, as Table 16 illustrates below.

Other vocalic interactions occur between the verb stems and the pronominal clitics, particularly with the 1S, 2S, and 3S form. clitics.

These can be seen in Table 17 below.

³⁷38. This set of clitics has been found with -‘i final verb stems. ³⁸39. Many of the verbs in Xidza have alternate plural clitics as well, however, they are accompanied by a change in the verb stem. These forms need to be further investigated.

Another interesting pattern is seen in -aj final stems, in which the /a/ is deleted in the same singular forms mentioned above.

This can be seen in the example in Table 18.

Alternations in the pronominal clitics

Finally, in some verbs, the pronominal clitics in these three forms have the following alternations: 1s =da, 2s =nu, and 3s sr =ne as seen in the example in Table 15.

This tends to be seen with i- final stems.

V . vowel hierarchy mentioned by Báez and Kaufman (2016), as part of the vowel simplification process.

This is left to the end of the discussion since the interaction between verb stems and pronominal clitics influences the surface forms of these verbs.

The parameters to be used to categorize verbs in a way that will make instruction to non-native speakers of Xidza is still not clear.

However, discovering verb categories has proven to be a good starting point in our efforts to create didactic material for Xidza.

References

Báez, G. P., & Kaufman, T. (2016). Verb Classes in Juchitán Zapotec. Anthropological Linguistics, 58(3), 217–257. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26350390

Beam de Azcona, Rosemary. (2017. Southern Zapotec Verb Classes. Amerindia, (41), 121.

Beam de Azcona, Rosemary. (2016). Zapotecan languages. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

Beam de Azcona, Rosemary. (2015). “Valency -changing devices in two Southern Zapotec languages” in Natalie Operstein and Aaron Huey Sonnenschein (eds.), Valence Changes in Zapotec: Synchrony, Diachrony, Typology, pp. 139-174. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins.

Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G. (2012). Southern Zapotec toponyms. En Lillehaugen, Brook &Aaron

Sonnenschein, eds. The Expression of Location in Zapotecan Languages. LINCOMEuropa.

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Loxicha. Cuadernos del Sur. (V olume in memory of Thomas C. SmithStark) Victor de la Cruz & Ausencia López Cruz, eds.

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Galant, Michael. (2014). La distribución insólita de los clíticos pronominales en el zapoteco de San Juan Yaee. COLOV . 2014.

Galant, Michael. (2016). La pluralización en el zapoteco de San Andrés Yaá. COLOV . 2016.

Martinez Perez, Nelson. (2019). Didza xidza, gùdzatsi-gùlhuwìrù ka guzuajrù na gùlhuwiru ka nhaki yuku

xtidzì: Zapoteco del rincón: forjando su escritura a través de la descripción fonológica. Maestría en Lingüística Institución : Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras.

Merne Meredith, Pablo & Cruz Miguel. R.. (2015). Didza Xidza: Conjugación de verbos en zapoteco del Rincón. Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca. Oaxaca.

Sonnenschein, Aaron Huey. (2004). A Descriptive Grammar of San Bartolome Zoogocho Zapotec. 451. München: Lincom. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California; xviii+434pp.)

Sonnenschein, Aaron y Michael Galant. 2007. “Functions and morphosyntactic reflexes of Proto-Zapotec *nV[-hi] in Sierra Norte Zapotec languages”. Ponencia presentada en Reunión Annual de la Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) 2007.