A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000)
Page 47
(74)
Adjectival
Nominal
Root
Root
Compound
cij ol cij=ol
‘sweet, tasty, delicious,
‘heart (non-corporeal);
‘healthy’
pleasant’
mind, will, desire,
energy, spirit’
co
ich co=ich
‘crazy, foolish, insolent,
‘eye, sight; face, facial
‘frivolous, lewd, shameless in
boisterous, roguish,
expression, visage’
appearance’
cunning, deceitful’
tzeem ol tzeem=ol
‘thin, feeble, frail’
‘heart (non-corporeal);
‘pusillanimous, faint-hearted’
mind, will, desire,
energy, spirit’
278 ADJECTIVES
kul
pacat kul=pacat
‘very much; hardened
‘sight, eyes; light; aspect’
‘impudent, saucy, shameless,
(fruit), bright’
mischievous, insolent, fascinated,
enchanted’
nach pach nach=pach
‘far, distant, extended,
‘back, rear, side’
‘outcast, rejected, despised’
long (shadow)’
num ya num=ya
‘excessive, much’
‘pain, misery, misfortune’
‘miserable, difficult, painful’
tu
ceeb tuu=ceb
‘stinky, rotten’
‘belch’
‘bilious’
There are also a few examples of compounds in which the adjectival roots are combined with transitive
roots in Colonial Yucatec. In these cases, the compounds bear the participial suffixes, -(a)an or -bil:
(75) Adjectival
Transitive
Participial
Root
Root
Compound
çac
ppoo çac=ppoan
‘white; false’
‘to wash /beard, hair/,
‘white (clothes that have been
launder /clothes/, cleanse washed)’
/soul/’
çuu
chuy çuçu=chuyan
‘thick, dense (trees, plants,
‘to sew, embroider’
çuçu=chuybil
stitches in needlework,
‘tightly sewn’
leaves on tree, leprosy)’
chachal kax chachal=kaxan
‘loosely tied, knotted’
‘to tie up, bind’
‘tied loosely’
nach pik nach=pikan
‘far, distant, extended,
‘to separate, withdraw,
‘isolated, distant, far, removed’
long (shadow)’
move away’
In others, the suffix, -en, seems to have the same function as -(a)an:
(76)
Adjectival
Nominal
Root
Root
Compound
çiz
tħub
çiz=tħuben
‘cold, cool’
‘to submerge, sink,
‘penetratingly cold’
immerse’
ADJECTIVES
279
han pik han=piken
‘clear of objects’
‘to separate, withdraw,
‘cleared’
move away’
The same suffix occurs frequently in compounds based on the color adjectives (eek ‘black,’ chac ‘red,’ kan
‘yellow,’ çac ‘white, and yax ‘green’), which are discussed at length in 3.1. in Chapter 12.
The Hocaba dictionary of Modern Yucatec contains many fewer examples of adjectival compounds.
There are six compounds that combine adjectival and nominal roots:
(77) Adjectival
Nominal
Root
Root
Compound
ʔal
hóʔol
ʔal=hóʔol
‘heavy’
‘head, hair’
‘weighted unevenly’
kul
kàal kul=kàal
‘short’
‘neck, throat’
‘short-necked’
p’ič
neh
p’ič=neh
‘short, reduced’
‘tail’
‘short-tailed’
sak
ʔìik’
sak=ʔìik’
‘white; false’
‘wind, air, breath’
‘still (no wind)’
sáʔak’
ʔóol
sáʔak’=ʔóol
‘active’
‘heart, will, energy, spirit’
‘active, industrious’
tuʔ
kèeb’
túʔu=kèeb’
‘stinky, rotten’
‘belch’
‘bilious’
Transitive roots follow adjectival roots in three compounds:
(78) Adjectival
Transitive
Root
Root
Compound
čak
nul
čak=nul
‘red, pink, orange,
‘to bruise, mangle, stub’
‘naked’
rust-colored’
kiʔ
b’ok
kíʔi=b’ok
‘tasty, delicious’
‘to perfume, fumigate’
‘fragrant’
tuʔ
b’ok
túʔu=b’ok
‘stinky, rotten’
‘to perfume, fumigate’
‘stinky’
There is only one unambiguous example of a compound based on two adjectival roots in the Hocaba dic-
tionary: čéʔeh=čak ‘rare (meat)’ (< čeʔ ‘raw’ and čak ‘red, pink, orange, rust-colored’).
280 ADJECTIVES
The only adjectival compounds that are well attested in Modern Yucatec are those based on color
terms followed by transitive, intransitive, positional, nominal, and other adjectival roots. As explained in
3.2. in Chapter 12, they are marked by an -éʔen suffix, which is the Modern cognate of the -en suffix in
Colonial Yucatec.
6. ADJECTIVAL PHRASES
Adjectival phrases composed of an adjective followed by a noun can be distinguished from compounds
based on the same roots in terms of whether the noun is inflected for possession with a clitic pronoun.
For example, the Calepino de Motul contains examples of an adjectival compound and a phrase based on
the adjective, toh ‘straight, direct,’ and the noun, ol ‘heart (non-corporeal); mind, will, desire, energy, spirit,’
which together mean ‘fine, well, healthy’:
(79a) toh=ol va a yum
‘is your father healthy?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 425v)
(79b) toh va y ol a yum
‘is your father healthy?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 425v)
In (79a), the noun in the compound (toh=ol) lacks a possessive clitic pronoun, whereas in (79b), the noun is
preceded by the clitic pronoun: y ol. The same is true of tòoh uy óol in (79c), which is the Modern cognate
of toh y ol in Colonial Yucatec:
(79c) in sukúʔuneʔ hač tòoh uy óol
‘my older brother, he is very healthy’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:278)
Another minimal pair in Colonial Yucatec, contrasting the constituents of a compound with those of a
phrase, is based on the same noun (ol) and the adjective, tz
eem ‘thin, feeble, frail,’ which together mean
‘pusillanimous, faint-hearted’:
(80a) hach tzeem=ol-ech
‘you are very pusillanimous!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 117v)
(80b) tzeem
au ol
‘you are pusillanimous’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 117v)
Two forms of the second-person pronoun appear in these examples. In (80a), the compound is treated as
an unbroken unit, with the pronominal suffix, -ech, at the end, whereas in (80b), the clitic pronoun sepa-
rates the noun from the adjective, marking the expression as a phrase.
A comparable pair of examples in Modern Yucatec is based on the noun, b’òok ‘odor, smell,’ and the
adjectives, kiʔ ‘tasty, delicious’ and tuʔ ‘stinky, rotten’:
(81a) le lòolaʔ kíʔi=b’ok
‘this flower is fragrant’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:34)
ADJECTIVES 281
(81b) tuʔ u b’òok le b’ak’aʔ
‘this meat stinks’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:34)
Although the adjectives in these examples are different, their relationship to the noun contrasts the com-
pound (kíʔi=b’ok) in (81a) without a clitic pronoun with the phrase in (81b), in which the clitic pronoun sep-
arates the adjective (tuʔ) from the noun (b’òok).
7. SUMMARY OF ADJECTIVAL CHANGES THROUGH TIME
Six of the fourteen suffixes with which adjectives were derived from nominal, verbal, and adjectival roots
in Colonial Yucatec became rare or disappeared altogether in the course of time. One of them (-tzil) was
equivant to the suffix, -able, in English. Another (-liz) co-occurred with numeral classifiers, producing adjec-
tives that referred to duration. Still another (-lac) supplied celeritive and inchoative stems with a gerundial
meaning. The remaining suffixes did not have distinctive semantic components.
NOTES
1. A variant of yáʔab’ač is yáʔakač in Modern Yucatec.
2. A variant of çaatayom was çayom in Colonial Yucatec.
3. The Calepino de Motul also lists ocbil ‘entered, begun’, contrasting ocolbil cħeen ‘accessible well’ with
ocbil v cħabal haai ‘water is fetched up by descending [into a sinkhole]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 341r).
4. Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) Kurz.
CHAPTER 11
POSITIONALS
Both Colonial and Modern Yucatec have a form class of positional roots, from which adjectival and intransi-
tive stems may be derived with suffixes that contrast with those co-occurring with other roots. In addition,
positional roots can be distinguished from other kinds of roots semantically. In general, positional roots
refer to physical states or positions, such as standing, sitting, kneeling, hanging, lying down, leaning, bend-
ing, and bowing that human beings, animals, and inanimate objects can assume:
(1)
Colonial
Modern
Gloss
ac
ʔak
settle, form puddles, seat firmly
cah
kah
reside, settle
coɔ
koȼ’
roll up, curl up, coil up
cop
kop
fold oneself up, curl or twist self
cul
kul
sit down; reside; be in a place
çin
sin
stretch out, spread out
tzel
ȼel
lie on one’s side; be on one’s side
tzol
ȼol
be aligned
chel
čil
lie down, stretch out, lie full length, be stretched out,
lying down; dismissed
chin
čin
bow, grovel; be ashamed
chok
čok’
cram, stuff, compress, crowd, pack tightly
cħau
č’aw
fall, hang over, dangle (branch of tree)
cħeb
č’eb’
be tilted, lean to one side
cħuy
č’uy
hang, dangle
eɔ
ʔèeȼ’
settle in place
hau
haw
lie face up, look face up, stretch out lying on back
hay
hay
spread out, extend
hec
hek
spread open (arms, legs, books), open wide (doors, windows)
hen
hen
sprawl, become loose (load of corn or wood)
hocħ
hoč’
fall in heap (clothes on floor)
hot
hot
bend over to ground
huc
huk
be stretched out with arms and legs extended
kat
k’at
lie across
kech
k’eč tilt
lap
lap
place between two objects
282
POSITIONALS 283
lech
leč
hang from pole or shoulder (clothing, axe)
loch
loč
curl up
mec
mek
twist, bend
mech
meč
twist, bend (branches, beams)
met
met
twist, curl up, coil up
motħ
mot’
stoop, squat, crouch, cower
mucħ
muč’
pile up
nac
nak
lean against
nak
nak’
place against
noc
nok
lie face down; lean against; turn upside down; fall (dead trees)
pac
pak
brood (hen or bird on eggs); lean over
pacħ
pač’
hang, dangle; be thrown down, disarranged
pec
pek
stretch out at full length
ppoh
p’oh
bend over
ppuuz
p’us
bend, hump up, swell
ppum
p’um
arch, bend, curve, encurvate
tak
tak’
stick, adhere
tich
tič
protrude, extrude
ticħ
tič’ protrude
tipp
tip’
increase, appear
tuc
tuk
pile up quickly
tuɔ
tuȼ’
be extended, stretched out (timber, legs, arms)
tucħ
tuč’
become erect
tħijb
t’ib’
be on all fours (wild animals)
tħon
t’on
lean, droop [from sickness]
tħoy
t’oy
hang, droop, faint, swoon
tħub
t’ub’ submerge
tħuch
t’uč
perch, squat, rest
ual
wáʔal
stand up, stop
xac
šak
bend over, fall on hands and knees
xol
šol
steady, prop up; kneel
Many positional roots are polyvalent, sharing the same form and related meanings with transitive roots,
as is the case with th
e ones in boldface in (1) above. For example, the positional root chin (phonetic [čin])
means ‘bow, grovel’ in Modern Yucatec, and its root transitive counterpart (also čin) means ‘to bend.’
1. POSITIONAL ADJECTIVES
1.1. POSITIONAL ADJECTIVES IN COLONIAL YUCATEC. Positional adjectives were derived from positional
roots by suffixing -cabal to the root in Colonial Yucatec. The Calepino de Motul contains 53 examples of
positional adjectives, of which the following are illustrative:
(2)
ac-cabal ‘seated placed firmly’
coy-cabal ‘tilted, inclined to one side’
ɔan-cabal ‘piled up, assembled, joined’
284 POSITIONALS
chin-cabal ‘bowed, humbled’
kech-cabal ‘twisted’
lop-cabal ‘bent, twisted, arched’
metħ-cabal ‘huddled, crouched, contracted, shrunken, secluded’
nac-cabal ‘leaning’
nix-cabal ‘tilted, upset’
ppuc-cabal ‘stooped, squatting, crouched [in weeds]’
tħub-cabal ‘submerged, immersed’
ua[l]-cabal ‘erect, upright, stopped’
The -cabal suffix in a few positional adjectives was sometimes reduced to -cab:
(3)
hau-cab ‘face up’
hay-cab ‘spread out, extended’
hech-cab ‘manifest, exposed’
pacħ-cab ‘spread out’
pec-cab ‘laid flat’
ticħ-cab ‘placed on high’
ua-cab ‘erect, upright’
Several examples of the use of positional adjectives in context appear below:
(4a)
kech-cabal che
‘twisted tree’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 244r)
(4b)
metħ-cabal pek
‘crouched dog [grayhound in a spurt]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 305v)
(4c)
va[l]-cabal Juan
‘John is standing’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 437r)
(4d)
hay-cab in nok ti kin
‘my clothes are spread out in the sun’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 173v)
1.2. POSITIONAL ADJECTIVES IN MODERN YUCATEC. Positional adjectives underwent a significant change
in structure in the transition from Colonial to Modern Yucatec, in which a copy of the vowel in the root was
inserted between the final consonant of the root and the first consonant in -cabal and the first “a” in -ca-
bal was deleted: CVC-cabal — > CVC-Vkb’al. This change is shown in the following examples of positional
adjectives in the Calepino de Motul with their Modern counterparts:
(5)
Classical (CVC-cabal)
Modern (CVC-Vkb’al)
Gloss
ac-cabal
ʔak-akb’al
seated, placed firmly
coɔ-cabal koȼ’-okb’al
rolled up, coiled up
cop-cabal kop-okb’al