A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000)
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relative pronouns:
(3) Relative
Interrogative
Pronoun
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
bal
thing, what
balx
what?
bahun
as many as
bahunx
how many? how long? how much?
bic
how, as, like
bicx
how?
cen
what, that which
cenx
where is he or it?
ceen
which is it?
ceenx
which is it?
cuun
well? well then?
cunx
well? well then?
mac
person, who
macx
who?
tab(a) where
tabx
where?
Four particle stems are derived from particle roots by suffixing -ac to the root:
(4)
Particle
Derived
Root
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
çam
already, a while ago,
çamac
sometime in the future
a little after
hele
now, today
heleac
a while ago, today
ool
almost, about to,
olac
almost, about to, on the point of
on the verge, on the
point of, almost like
ual today
ualac
at this time (of day); while, during,
still
368 PARTICLES
Of these derived particles, only olac has a cognate in Modern Yucatec (ʔòolak ‘almost, about to, on the
verge of’), and ualac has left traces in the Hocaba dictionary in walahkyakaʔ and walkilaʔ, both meaning ‘at
this time [of day]’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:17, 299).
Three particle stems are derived from particle roots by suffixing -Vl to the root:
(5) Particle
Derived
Root
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
bic
how?, how, as, like
bicil how
çam
already, a while
çamal
tomorrow, day before
ago, a little after
ich
in, to, within
ichil
in, within, among
The only cognates of these derived particles in Modern Yucatec are sáamal ‘tomorrow’ and ʔičil ‘within’
(V. Bricker et al. 1998:19, 242).
3. ADVERBIAL PARTICLES
The adverbial particles in Colonial and Modern Yucatec include (1) temporal adverbs, (2) locative adverbs,
and (3) manner adverbs.
3.1. TEMPORAL ADVERBS. The most obvious temporal adverbs in Colonial and Modern Yucatec are the
aspectual particles and headwords that situate verbs in time:
(6)
Colonial
Modern
Particle
Cognate
Aspect
bin
b’íin
remote future
çam sáam anterior
lic
k
incompletive, habitual
tan táan durative
t(i) t perfective
yan yàan compulsive
They are described at length, and their functions are illustrated in example sentences in Chapter 5 and will
therefore not be considered further here.
However, not all temporal adverbs serve as aspectual particles. One of them is ual (also spelled iual
and yual) ‘today.’ The temporal adverbial particle, ualac ‘at this time [of day]; while, during, still,’ is derived
from ual. Another temporal adverb is çamal ‘tomorrow,’ and still another is amal ‘all the time, always.’ Their
function in Colonial Yucatec is illustrated in the following sentences:
(7a) ma
val ma-ix çamal ca paxal
‘neither today nor tomorrow will we emigrate’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 440v)
(7b)
ma c ohel iual va çamal v kin ca lukebal vay y okol cabe
‘we don’t know if today or tomorrow is the time for us to leave this world’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:
fol. 227r)
PARTICLES
369
(7c)
tab c eɔeb=cuch yuale
‘where will our resting place be today?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 162r)
(7d)
valacech ti cheltal valacech ti hautal
‘at this time [of day] you are still stretched out; at this time [of day] you are still face up’ (Ciudad Real
1600?: fol. 440v)
(7e)
bai xan yum hoho tu kal hoch=ci c betic amal akab
‘thus also, Father, 25 henequen leaves are we rasping every night’ (HB784-214B)
The particle, ualac, survives in Modern Yucatec in walahkyakeʔ and walkilaʔ, both meaning ‘at this time
[of day].’ Their function as temporal adverbs is illustrated below:
(8a)
hóʔolhak walahkyakaʔ tíʔ yanen t inw otočeʔ
‘yesterday, at this time [of day], I was in my home’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:299)
(8b)
walkil sáamalaʔ léeyliʔ wayanečeʔ
‘at this time tomorrow you will still be here’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:299)
The Modern cognates of çamal and amal are sáamal and ʔamat, respectively, as in the following con-
textual examples:
(9a)
yan k tóok sáamal
‘we have to burn tomorrow’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:92)
(9b)
ʔamat k’ìin b’iháʔan h wàan
‘John was gone all day’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:5)
(9c)
ʔamat ʔok’ol
‘cry all the time’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:5)
3.2. LOCATIVE ADVERBS. The principal locative adverbs in Colonial and Modern Yucatec are:
(10) Colonial
Modern
Particle
Gloss
Cognate
Gloss
te
there, over there
teʔ
here
tij
there
tíʔiʔ
there
tolo
there, yonder
toloʔ
out there
uay here
way
here
Some examples of their use in Colonial Yucatec appear below:
(11a) te v benel cumkale
‘there he goes to Conkal’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 415r)
(11b) tij yan ti y otoch ku
‘there he is in church’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 418v)
370 PARTICLES
(11c) tolo a ɔaic
‘place it out there!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 426r)
(11d) vay a malel t a vaçak
‘here you will pass on your return’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 439r)
Their cognates in Modern Yucatec appear in similar contexts:
(12a) teʔ a ȼ’áikaʔ
‘place it here!’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:272)
(12b) tíʔ t kanahiʔ
‘we learned it there’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:52)
(12c) b’is toloʔ
‘take it out there! (V. Bricker et al. 1998:272)
(12d) way t uy ilaheʔ
‘he saw it here’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:301)
The terminal deictic particles, aʔ, eʔ, iʔ, and oʔ, in these examples are discussed in Chapter 15.
3.3. MANNER ADVERBS. The following particles serve as manner adverbs in Colonial Yucatec, of which five
have cognates in the Hocaba dialect of Modern Yucatec:
(13) Colonial
Modern
Particle
Cognate
Gloss
bay
b’èey
thus, as, like, so
bicil
—
how
tza
ȼah
sure, certain
çeb
séeb’
quickly
tac
—
quickly
tec téek immediately
xan šàan slowly
The Calepino de Motul illustrates the use of six of these adverbs in sentences:
(14a) bay v mal booy bay v mal muyal cuxtale
‘this is how life passes: like shade, like clouds’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 41v)
(14b) utzcin bay bin au alice
‘do as you say!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 41v)
(14c) alcabnen tac
‘run quickly!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 397v)
PARTICLES 371
(14d) tza pay v cah ten
‘he calls me importunately’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 113v)
(14e) mankeçex ten bicil a cahex
‘tell me quickly how you-all are!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 298r)
(14f) xan v tal çac nal çeb v tal mehen nal
‘white corn comes slowly; small corn comes quickly’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 406r)
The Hocaba dictionary illustrates the use of four of the five cognates in Modern Yucatec:
(15a) h wàaneʔ séeb’ u t’àan
‘as for John, he speaks rapidly [i.e., he is popular]’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:243)
(15b) h wàaneʔ šàan u meyah
‘as for John, he works slowly’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:254)
(15c) ȼah im b’in
‘I am definitely going’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:40)
(15d) máʔ a téek hanal
‘don’t eat right away!’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:273)
4. INTERROGATIVE PARTICLES
The clitic particle ua (phonetic [wáah]) has an interrogative function in both Colonial and Modern Yucatec.
The most common placement of this interrogative particle was after the first word in a sentence in Colonial
Yucatec:
(16a) bin ua likic au ol a chucub Juan
‘will you venture forth to capture John?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 269r)
(16b) yan va a nupintic a yum
‘have you contradicted your father?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 338r)
(16c) av vbah va v pectzil ah ocolob
‘did you hear the news about the thieves?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 371r)
The same is true in Modern Yucatec:
(17a) aw ʔòohel wáah meyah
‘do you know how to work?’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:298)
(17b) aw íiȼ’nóʔob’ wá letíʔob’
‘are they your brothers?’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:17)
372 PARTICLES
(17c) yàan
wáah a t’òošil le k’ìin k’àab’aʔoʔ
‘will there be a distribution [of food] at that birthday?’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:293)
Another clitic particle with an interrogative function that followed the initial word in sentences was xin
in Colonial Yucatec:
(18a) v ɔij xin au ol hanal
‘do you wish to eat?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 131r)
(18b) valac
xin a beeltic lo
‘are you accustomed to do that?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 440v)
(18c) t a potah xin cum in kubentah tech
‘did you make the pot that I ordered from you?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 381r)
Both ua and xin co-occurred in some questions in Colonial Yucatec:
(19a) tech va ah benel cumkal a yum xin
‘are you the one who will go to Conkal, or is it your father?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 459v)
(19b) tech ua haɔi in mehen Pedro xin
‘did you whip my son or Peter?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 436v)
(19c) macx yam huli tech va Pedro xin
‘who came first, you or Peter?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 214r)
The placement of ua and xin immediately after tech ‘you’ and Pedro ‘Peter’ in (19b) indicates that they were
both agents of whipping and that in mehen ‘my son’ was the only patient mentioned in that question.
There is no evidence of the use of xin as a clitic particle in the Hocaba dialect of Modern Yucatec.
As explained in 2. above, interrogative pronouns are particles derived from nominal and particle roots
serving as relative pronouns. They introduce questions, contrasting in this respect with ua/wáah and xin,
which serve as interrogative particles only if they follow the first word in the sentence or phrase. Examples
of the use of interrogative pronouns in questions in Colonial Yucatec can be found in (34a–i) in Chapter 4.
Cognates of some of these interrogatives in Modern Yucatec are illustrated below:
(20a) b’iš aw óol k in kon teč
‘how can you think that I am going to sell it to you?’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:33)
(20b) b’áʔaš=k’ìin a b’in hoʔ
‘when are you going to Merida?’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:27)
(20c) máaš le máakoʔ
‘who is that man?’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:20)
(20d) túʔuš k a b’in
‘where are you going?’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:3)
PARTICLES 373
(20e) túʔuš a tàaléʔeš
‘where do you-all come from?’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:19)
Not all questions in Modern Yucatec have interrogative particles, either at the beginning of the sen-
tence or elsewhere. Those that do not have an interrogative particle end in an “extra-high rising intona-
tional contour,” whereas those that do have an interrogative particle anywhere in a question end in a
level or falling countour (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1965:162). Information on intonation patterns regarding
questions is not part of the historical record for Colonial Yucatec.
5. NEGATIVE PARTICLES
Colonial Yucatec had four negative particles, one with a general meaning and the others with a more lim-
ited imperative meaning.
The general-purpose negative particle was ma ‘no, not.’ It appeared in a variety of contexts, as shown
below:
(21a) ma v chainah vol luum vaye
‘this land here does not satisfy me’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 136r)
(21b) ma chuucaani
‘it is not complete [i.e., part of it is missing]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 147r)
(21c) bax v chun a tacic a ne ma a tuculi
‘why do you butt into what is not your business?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 400v)
(21d) ma in botahi
‘I did not pay them [and don’t plan to]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 277r)
(21e) ma in bote in ppax
‘I have not paid my debts [but will pay them in the future]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 277v)
(21f) ma a benel mehene ti ma tan au alab ten
‘don’t go son without telling me!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 423r)
(21g) ma ten v tal ix ma nib=pixanil
‘it is not my way to be ungrateful [literally, without gratitude]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 406r)
(21h) ma-ix a conicex
‘and you-all will not sell it,
ma-ix a siycex lae ti u yanal uinic
nor will you-all offer this to another person’ (SB596C-303-305)
The first instance of ma in (21f) serves as the negative imperative, “don’t!,” and the second is part of a t
i
ma ‘without’ phrase. The second instance of ma in (21g) is part of an ix ma ‘without, perhaps not’ phrase.
374 PARTICLES
The two instances of ma-ix in (21h) can be glossed as ‘neither ... nor.’ The partitive function of the terminal
deictic particle, i (phonetic [iʔ]), in (21b–d) is described in Chapter 15.
The second negative particle, chan, is translated as ‘don’t!’:
(22a) chan a baite v pol batab
‘don’t flatter the leader!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 42v)
(22b) chan ti pacat=pacat
‘don’t look here and there! [i.e., look straight ahead!]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 355v)
(22c) va a ualkeçah a ba ti Diose chan a pact a pach
‘if you convert yourself to God, don’t relapse into sin!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 355v)
However, when chan follows ma, the double negative has a modal rather than an imperative quality:
(23a) ma chan in bool y etel in tem t in yum
‘I do not pay nor satisfy my father as much as I should’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 416r)
(23b) ma chan tzac y oc
‘it is not possible to satisfy him’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 114r)
The third negative particle, baci ‘not, stop!’, had a more consistent imperative function than chan:
(24a) baci lo
‘that’s enough! no more!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 40r)
(24b) baci au eɔ t in ximbal
‘don’t imitate the way I walk!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 161v)
(24c) baci a mech a kab
‘stop groping around!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 303r)
(24d) baci a pec=olal ten, teni lo
‘do not doubt that I am who I am!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 371r)
The fourth negative particle was hik ‘if not; why not?’, which is described as a cautionary particle fol-
lowed by a verb inflected for the future (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 186r):
(25a) hik çaçap hulucex
‘if you don’t negotiate something beforehand, you will go in vain’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 95r)
(25b) chan ti baxal hik in ɔaab a haz
‘stop playing! if not, I will punish you’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 125r)
(25c) hik lubucech
‘take care not to fall!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 186r)
PARTICLES 375
Of the four negative particles in Colonial Yucatec, only ma (phonetic [máʔ]) is attested in the Hocaba
dialect of Modern Yucatec:
(26a) máʔ in k’áatiʔ
‘I don’t want it’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:176)
(26b) máʔa t uy áʔalah ʔuȼ t uy ičiʔ
‘he didn’t say that he liked it’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:176)