A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Read online

  were written as cab bob and u mul lil, respectively, on page 16 of the Chumayel. The gaps between the “b’s”

  and “l’s” imply that the consonants were doubled so that the inflectional suffixes could be represented as

  CVC syllables. Other examples of such double consonants in words with VC suffixes are:

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  Normal spelling Variant spelling

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  haab-ob haab boob

  háʔab’-óʔob’

  years

  y oc-e

  yoc ce

  y òok-eʔ

  as for his toe

  uinic-il uinic cil wíinik-il people

  ah-om ah hom

  ʔàax-om

  he will be awakened

  buul-ob buul lob

  b’úʔul-óʔob’

  beans

  em-al em mal

  ʔem-al

  Emal [name of town]

  16 ORTHOGRAPHY

  hun-ab hun nab

  xun-ab’

  only

  kin-ob kin nob

  k’ìin-ob’

  days

  ɔutulɔut-il

  ɔutul ɔut til

  ȼ’úʔutulȼ’uʔut-il

  niggardly

  ahau-ob ahau uob

  ʔahaw-óʔob’

  rulers

  yax-al yax xaal

  yáʔaš-al

  green

  uay-om uay yom

  way-om

  injured?

  Elsewhere I have interpreted these and other examples of consonantal doubling in the Chumayel as ves-

  tiges of logosyllabic spelling principles that characterized the Precolumbian Maya hieroglyphic script

  (V. Bricker 1985, 1989). They represent an orthographic convention, not consonantal gemination (see

  Chapter 3).

  2.2. VOWELS. Colonial Yucatec had six contrastive vowels: i, u, e, o, a, ə. However, the alphabet used for

  writing Colonial Yucatec contains signs only for the first five vowels; there was no sign for the sixth vowel

  (schwa). Nevertheless, the presence of schwa can be inferred from its variable representation as “a” and

  “i” in the Calepino de Motul and other Colonial sources. By the late nineteenth century, schwa had been

  lowered to /a/ or, in a few cases, raised to /i/ (see 2.3.3. in Chapter 3), leaving Modern Yucatec with only five

  vowels. The other daughter languages of Colonial Yucatec —  Itsaj, Mopan, and Lacandon —  have retained

  schwa (Bruce 1968:19; Hofling 2000:3; Hofling 2011:3).

  A few common nouns whose vowels are doubled or accented in the Calepino de Motul correspond to

  nouns containing a long vowel in Modern Yucatec:

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  Colonial

  Gloss

  Modern

  Gloss

  ác

  grass

  ʔàak

  grass

  baac

  bone, horn (of deer, cow)

  b’àak

  bone

  baach

  type of pheasant

  b’àač

  chachalaca Ortalis vertula

  baal

  brother-in-law

  b’àal

  brother-in-law

  beel

  road, occupation; condition;

  b’èel

  road, occupation

   sin, fault, mistreatment

  ceeb

  belch

  kèeb’

  belch

  ix coochol

  large crickets

  š kòočol

  cricket

  yeeb

  fog, dew

  yèeb’

  fog, dew

  nooy

  pith, kernel, flesh

  nòoy

  pith, kernel

  paal

  young boy or girl

  pàal

  infant, child, minor

  toon

  penis

  tòon

  penis

  They imply that contrastive vowel length existed in Colonial Yucatec and is still present today (see 2.3.2.3.

  in Chapter 3).

  2.3. ABBREVIATIONS. Only one Maya word is systematically abbreviated in Colonial texts, namely yetel

  ‘with, and.’ It is usually represented graphemically as y, in which guise it resembles the Spanish word y,

  whose meaning ‘and’ is similar (although the Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua [V. Bricker and Miram 2002:249]

  contains one example of Spanish y ‘and’ spelled as ll, suggesting a misunderstanding of Spanish spelling

  conventions, which reserve ll for the word-initial and intervocalic positions, as in llano ‘plain’ and martillo

  ‘hammer’). There are, however, alternative abbreviations for yetel, including ytel, yt., and .y. . The yt. form

  resembles the abbreviation for the Latin word ytem ‘and also,’ the meaning of which is also similar. yetel

  ORTHOGRAPHY 17

  is occasionally spelled out in full (as yetel or lletel), and in rare instances the tail of the “y” is barred in the

  unabbreviated version of the word: yetel.

  The Maya scribe borrowed the Spanish convention of abbreviating words ending in nasals, either /n/ or

  /m/, by deleting the final consonant and placing a tilde (~) over the antecedent vowel:

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  Word-Final

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  bolõ

  b’olon nine

  cã kan four

  lahũ

  laxun ten

  mehê mexen

  man’s child

  tũ

  túun then

  tumê

  t u mèen because

  tħã

  t’àan

  word, language

  xamã šaman north

  yã yàan exists

  yũ

  yùum father

  Intervocalic nasals were sometimes treated in the same way:

  (27)

  Intervocalic

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  mãik manik’

  seventh day of Maya week

  nũya

  núumyah suffering

  tãcaz tamkas seizure

  tãcoch táankoč

  half

  tãxel táanšel foreign

  Occasionally, other consonants were deleted in spellings of Maya words, using either a tilde, or a period (.),

  or both to indicate that a letter was missing:

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  Abbreviation

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  ãy.k.l. ayik’al

  rich, wealthy

  culubű

  k u lúub’ul

  it falls

  cuzű

  k u sùut

  it returns

  yahã.cã

  y ahal-kàab’ dawn

  yahãlil

  y ahawlil

  his reign

  In none of these sets of examples does the tilde represent a nasalized vowel.

  Colonial texts abound with abbreviations of Spanish loans:

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  Abbreviation

  Full spelling

  Gloss

  Aguar.e aguardiente rum

  Alc.es alcaldes magistrates

  Al.o Alonso Alonso

  a.s años years

  bar.me Bartholomé Bartholomew

  capp.n capitán captain

  18 ORTHOGRAPHY

  D.s Dios God

  ess.no escribano scribe

  Gou.or gobernador governor

  jph Joseph Joseph

  ju.o Juan John

  mag. magestad majesty

  nob.e noviembre November

  P.e padre priest

  reg.r regidor aldermen

  s.n San saint

  s.or señor Mr.


  th.nte theniente lieutenant

  ͠Xpoual

  Christobal

  Christopher

  ͠Xpto

  cristiano

  christian

  For the most part, they follow the abbreviation conventions of Spanish.

  NOTES

  1. ii was normally written as ij in sixteenth-century Spanish (see 2.2. below).

  2. Not all doubled vowels imply the presence of a medial or final glottal stop. In some cases, they indicate

  only that a vowel is long (see 2.2. below).

  CHAPTER 3

  PHONOLOGY

  This chapter considers syllable structure and phonological processes that result from the concatenation of

  syllables across morpheme boundaries. It also examines stress and the history of the development of tone

  in Colonial and Modern Yucatec. Topics such as juncture and intonation that normally come under the pur-

  view of phonology are not recoverable from written texts and therefore will not be discussed in this work.

  1. ROOT-BASED PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

  1.1. CANONICAL ROOT SHAPES. The core of the word in Colonial Yucatec is the root, which occurs in two

  forms: CVC and CVCVC. Monosyllabic roots, composed of an initial consonant, a medial vowel, and a final

  consonant, are far more common than disyllabic roots. Because the orthography used for Colonial Yucatec

  did not include a symbol for the glottal stop, glottal-stop initial roots were written as VC (e.g., ac ‘grass,’ el

  ‘burn,’ ich ‘in, within,’ ol ‘heart, will, energy, spirit,’ and uk ‘drink’). Roots ending in glottal stops were writ-

  ten as CVV because terminal glottal stops were signalled by doubling the medial vowel (as in haa ‘water,’

  hee ‘egg,’ cii or cij ‘sweet,’ cħoo ‘rat, mouse,’ and tuu ‘stinky’). Roots ending in “h” were written as CV

  because root-final laryngeal “h” was marked by Ø (as in ba ‘self,’ le ‘lasso,’ ci ‘henequen,’ to ‘after,’ or ku

  ‘deity’). Thus, although the two laryngeal consonants were not marked by unique symbols, it was possible

  to distinguish them from each other in both initial and final position by contrasting hVC with VC (as in hol

  ‘hole’ versus ol ‘heart, will, energy, spirit’) and hV with hVV (as in he ‘here’ versus hee ‘egg’).

  The orthography did not distinguish between initial velar and laryngeal /h/; both were represented by

  the symbol “h” (hul [xul] ‘similar’ versus hul [hul] ‘arrive’). However, all words beginning with velar /h/ are

  grouped together in the Calepino de Motul, followed by all words beginning with laryngeal /h/. In final

  position, velar /h/ is represented by “h” and laryngeal /h/ by “Ø” (lah ‘all’ versus la ‘yes’). The same is true in

  medial position (çihan ‘born’ versus ‘çian ‘enchantment’).

  Some examples of the two types of roots appear in (1) and (2) below:

  (1)

  CVC root

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  ah

  ʔax

  wake up

  buul

  b’úʔul

  beans

  ci kih henequen

  chac

  čak

  red, pink, orange

  hun xun

  one

  huun

  húʔun

  letter, paper

  19

  20 PHONOLOGY

  kin

  k’ìin

  day, sun

  kuch

  k’uč

  arrive

  lik

  líik’

  arise

  maa

  maʔ

  no, not

  tal tàal come

  tħan

  t’àan

  word, language

  uuy

  ʔúʔuy

  feel, hear

  (2)

  CVCVC root

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  ahau

  ʔaxaw

  lord, ruler

  keken

  k’éek’en

  pig

  otoch

  ʔotoč

  home

  pixan

  pìišan

  soul

  tepal tèepal abundance

  ɮimin

  ȼíimin

  horse

  uinic wíinik human

  ulum

  ʔúulum

  turkey

  1.2. CO-OCCURRENCE RESTRICTIONS. All the consonants in Colonial Yucatec can begin and end syllables

  (McQuown 1967:209–229). The following general constraints operate on native CVC roots, restricting the

  consonants that can co-occur in initial and final position:1

  1. If the first consonant in such a syllable is a glottalized stop or affricate, its plain counterpart cannot

  appear at the end of that syllable, and vice versa (*k’___k, *k___k’).

  2. Furthermore, there cannot be two voiceless ejectives in the same root, unless they are identical in

  every respect (e.g., *k’___t’, *t’___k’).

  3. Affricates also exemplify a principle of consonant harmony, a syllable-conditioned process that pre-

  vents them from co-occurring in the same syllable if they do not share the same point of articulation

  (*ȼ___č, *ȼ___č’, *ȼ’___č, *ȼ’___č’, *č___ȼ, *č___ȼ’, *č’___ȼ, *č’___ȼ’).

  4. The one and only voiced ejective (b’) can co-occur with initial [p] and with any other stop or approx-

  imant with which it does not share the same point of articulation (*b’___p, *b’___p’, *b’___w, *p’___b’,

  *w___b’).

  The same restrictions apply to disyllabic roots, except that there is one attested violation of Rule 1 in Colo-

  nial (and Modern) Yucatec, namely that the surname Koyoc (phonetic [k’oyok]) contains both plain and

  glottalized k.

  1.3. VOWEL GRADES. The vowel in monosyllabic roots could be short, long, or rearticulated. The rearticula-

  tion results from the infixing of a glottal stop in the root, which is separated from the final consonant by a

  copy of the root vowel. In the Calepino de Motul, compiled during the second half of the sixteenth century,

  monosyllabic roots containing short vowels were represented as CVC. So, also, were many monosyllabic

  roots with complex vowels (either long or rearticulated). Complex vowels were sometimes doubled (e.g.,

  paal ‘child’; cuuc ‘elbow length’) and/or accented (e.g., ác ‘turtle, tortoise’; hóomol ‘sink, subside’), indicating that they were long or rearticulated and stressed. These clues to pronunciation were more frequent

  in representing disyllabic stems, usually in situations of semantic or grammatical ambiguity. They are dis-

  cussed at length in 2.3.2.

  PHONOLOGY 21

  1.4. AFFIXES. Inflectional and derivational processes are signalled by prefixing or suffixing grammatical

  morphemes with the following shapes to the root: C, CV, V, VC, VCC, and CVC.

  1.4.1. PREFIXES. The most common prefixes in Colonial Yucatec are the clitic pronouns:

  (3)

  Pronoun

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  in ~ inu

  (ʔ)in ~ (ʔ)iŋw

  I, my

  a ~ au

  (ʔ)a ~ (ʔ)aw

  you, your

  u ~ uy

  (ʔ)u ~ (ʔ)uy

  he, she, it; his, her, its

  c ~ ca

  k ~ ka

  we, our

  In the prefixes that are represented as V (a and u), VC (au and uy), and VCC (iŋu) in the Colonial orthogra-

  phy, the glottal stop appears only when the prefix is in initial position. The other syllable shape
s, C (c) and

  CV (ca), can occur in initial position without modification.

  Two other prefixes, ah (phonetic [ʔax]) and ix (phonetic [ʔiš]), have a variety of functions. In agentive

  expressions, ah often refers to men and ix to women, but ah can also have a broader agentive meaning,

  including roles monopolized by women, in its range (e.g., ah çacal ‘weaver’). Both ah and ix appear in

  botanical and faunal names, where gender is not an issue. They seem to function more generally as a kind

  of noun classifier (but see Lois 1998). Some examples of their multiple uses appear in (4) and (5) below:

  (4)

  Agentive

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  ah cah

  ʔax kàax

  neighbor

  ah canan

  ʔax kanàan

  guardian

  ah cay

  ʔax kay

  fisherman

  ah col

  ʔax kòol

  farmer

  ah cħibal

  ʔax č’íʔib’al

  person of noble lineage

  ah hul

  ʔax hùul

  archer

  ah kin

  ʔax k’ìin

  priest

  ah max

  ʔax màaš

  wild chilli pepper

  ah mis

  ʔax mìis

  cat

  ah ohel

  ʔax ʔoxel

  witness

  ah pax

  ʔax pàaš

  musician

  ah çacal

  ʔax sakal

  weaver (female)

  ah tepal

  ʔax tèepal

  lord, sovereign

  ah tok

  ʔax tòok’

  bloodletter

  ah ɮab can

  ʔax ȼáab’-kàan

  rattlesnake

  ah ɔac

  ʔax ȼ’àak

  doctor, surgeon

  ah uaay

  ʔax wáay

  witch

  (5)

  Agentive

  Phonetic spelling

  Gloss

  ix ahau

  ʔiš ʔahaw

  queen

  ix balche

  ʔiš b’áal-čeʔ

  Lonchocarpus longistylis Pittier

  ix al

  ʔiš ʔàal

  woman lately delivered

  ix cħup

  ʔiš č’up

  woman

  ix kan tun bub

  ʔiš k’áan-tun-b’úub’

  Melampodium divaricatum (L. Rich.) DC

  ix kokob

  ʔiš k’óok’ob’

  a type of snake

  ix mehen

  ʔiš mèehen

  man’s daughter; small

  ix nuc

  ʔiš nùuk

  old woman of more than 50 years

  22 PHONOLOGY

  1.4.2. SUFFIXES. There are more suffixes than prefixes in Colonial Yucatec, which have a variety of shapes

  and functions:

  (6)