8. INTERROGATIVE AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS
The pronouns in these categories are both formally and semantically related to each other, as can be seen
most clearly in Colonial Yucatec, where the interrogative pronouns were formed by suffixing -x to a relative
pronoun:
(41)
Interrogative
Relative
bahunx ‘how many? how long? how much?’ bahun ‘as many as’
balx ‘what?’
bal ‘thing, what’
bicx ‘how?’
bic ‘how, as, like’
bi(y)kinx ‘when?’
bikin ‘when’
macx ‘who?’
mac ‘person, man, human being’
tabx ‘where?’
tab(a) ‘where’
tubx ‘where?’
—
Some examples of these interrogatives in context appear in (42a–i) below:
(42a) bahunx takin a çamtah ti be
‘how much money did you spend on travel?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 97v)
(42b) bahunx a lutz kay
‘how many fish did you catch with a hook?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 275r)
(42c) bahunx ma kuchuc t u kak chumuc kin
‘how long is it until noon?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 41r)
(42d) balx u katbal teche
‘what is being asked of you?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 239v)
(42e) bicx bin au utzcinic lo
‘how will you improve that?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 437r)
60 PRONOUNS
(42f) bikinx a cibic benel campeche
‘when do you want to go to Campeche?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 70v)
(42g) macx au etail uaye
‘who is your friend here?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 166r)
(42h) tabx likulech
‘where do you come from?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 269r)
(42i)
tubx yan u nucil uinicob
‘where are the principal men?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 333v)
Additional examples appear in 2.5. in Chapter 16.
Over time, the consonant clusters at the end of interrogative pronouns — nx, lx, cx, and bx — were
eliminated by deleting either the interrogative suffix or the antecedent consonant, resulting in the inter-
rogative pronouns found in Modern Yucatec today:
(43)
Interrogative
Relative
b’ahuš ‘how much?’
b’ahun ‘as many as’
b’ahun ‘how many?’
b’aʔaš ‘what?’
b’áʔaš ‘what’
b’iš ‘how?’
b’iš ‘how, as, like’
b’ik’iš ~ b’ik’in ‘when?’
b’ik’in ‘when’
b’ukáʔah ‘how much? how many?’
b’ukáʔah ‘how much, how many’
máaš ‘who?’
máaš ‘who’
túʔuš ‘where?’
túʔuš ‘where’
These changes were already well underway during the second half of the sixteenth century, for the Calepino
de Motul contains the following alternative forms of the interrogative pronouns:
(44)
bahun ~ bahunx ‘how many?’
bal ~ bax ~ balx ‘what?’
bic ~ bicx ‘how?’
bi(y)kin ~ bi(y)kinx ‘when?’
mac ~ macx ‘who?’
tab ~ taba ~ tabx ~ tubx ‘where?’
Furthermore, (43) shows that in four cases (b’áʔaš, b’iš, máaš, and túʔuš), the original interrogative form
replaced the original relative pronoun as well, thereby blurring the formal distinction between the two
types of pronouns even more.
In accounting for the changes that have taken place in interrogative and relative pronouns since the
late sixteenth century, it is instructive to compare the negation of relative pronouns in Colonial and Mod-
ern Yucatec:
PRONOUNS
61
(45)
Colonial Yucatec
Modern Yucatec
ma bahun ‘scanty, limited’
ma bal ‘nothing’
miš b’áʔal ‘nothing’
ma bici(o) ‘in no way’
ma biykin ‘never again’
miš b’ik’in ‘never’
ma biykini ‘never before’
ma mac ‘no one’
miš máak ‘no one’
ma tab(a) ‘nowhere’
miš túʔuš ‘nowhere’
In (45), miš is the Modern counterpart of Colonial ma-ix ‘not, nor,’ which is composed of the negative parti-
cle ma and the clitic conjunction ix ‘and.’ There are no counterparts of ma bahun and ma bici(o) in Modern
Yucatec. Another difference is that only the tubx form of the interrogative pronoun meaning ‘where?’ sur-
vived into Modern Yucatec (as túʔuš), where it represents both the interrogative and relative pronouns and
is the only negated relative pronoun that has retained the x/š suffix.
Contextual examples of the steps in the transformation of the Colonial into the Modern forms of the
negative pronouns appear in (46a–c, 47a–c, 48a–d, 49a–c):
(46a) ma bal yan ten
‘I have nothing’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:279r) [1577–1620]
(46b) ma-ix bal ca kat ti
‘and nothing do we request of him’ (TTZ589) [1589]
(46c) ma u tuculob mix bal
‘they did not think of anything’ (CHA850A) [1850]
(47a) ma bikin in hoppol ti baxal t u ca=ten
‘I never begin to joke again’ (OX683-004A) [1683]
(47b) ma-x bikin bin y al missa
‘and never will he say Mass’ (PCH779B) [1779]
(47c) t u men mix bikin bin hokoc
‘because never will he come out’ (V. Bricker 1981a:216, line 293) [1851]
(48a) ma mac bin luksic ti lae
‘no one will take it away from him’ (TK725E) [1725]
(48b) ma-ix mac bin luksic ten
‘and no one will take it away from me’ (OX683-013A) [1683]
(48c) u tial ma-x mac bin tħanac y oklal
‘and in order that no one will speak against’ (KAN778A) [1778]
(48d) mix mac bin luksic xan
‘and no one will take it away either’ (KAN813C) [1813]
62 PRONOUNS
(49a) ma tab in benel
‘I am going nowhere’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.299r) [1577–1620]
(49b) ma-ix tab c u chictahal toon
‘and nowhere do we come across it’ (MID567:fol. 367, line 114) [1567]
(49c) mix tux yanhi v ɔonolob t u men u tropa
‘and nowhere exist their gunshot wounds by his troops’ (AYN851A) [1851]
They show that the vowel hiatus in ma-ix was resolved by deleting one of the vowels, with mix dominat-
ing max over time. The clitic conjunction ix did not survive into Modern Yucatec, and mix has completely
replaced ma as the negative particle in negative pronominal constructions.
9. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
Colonial Yucatec had three sets of indefinite pronouns, which have been reduced to only two in Modern
Yucatec.
9.1. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS IN COLONIAL YUCATEC. The Calepino de Motul, dating to between 1577
and 1620, lists two kinds of indefinite pronouns as entries (Ciudad Real 1600?:fols. 184v-185r, 186v-187r,
436v-437r, 441v-442r), one introduced by hij (phonetic [hiʔ] and the other by ua (phonetic [wáah]). The for-
mer produces pronouns whose glosses end in “-ever” and/or begin with “any-” (e.g., whatever, anything;
whenever, any time; however, anyhow; whoever, anyone; wherever, anywhere). The latter generates pro-
nouns who
se glosses begin with “some-” (e.g., something, somehow, sometime, someone, somewhere):
(50)
-ever/any-
some-
hi bahun ‘however much, however many’
ua bahun ‘somewhat’
hi bal ‘whatever, anything’
ua bal ‘something’
hi bic(i) ‘like, however, anyhow’
ua bic(i) ‘how, somehow’
hi bikin ‘whenever, anytime’
ua bi(y)kin ‘sometime’
hij mac ‘whoever, anyone’
ua mac ‘someone’
hi tab(a) ‘wherever, anywhere’
ua tab ‘somewhere’
Some examples of their use in the Calepino appear in (51a–g) and (52a–f):
(51a) bin in ɔab a naate hi bahun a payma ti Dios
‘I will inform you of how much you have owed to God’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 126v)
(51b) hij bal v hol tech
‘whatever your purpose is’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.185r)
(51c) chac ila hi bal lic a beeltice
‘examine carefully whatever you do!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.225v)
PRONOUNS
63
(51d) hi bici toon çamal ca=beh
‘however we will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.185r)
(51e) ma c ohelma hi bikin v kin ca cimil
we have not known whenever the day of our death is’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.185r)
(51f) hi mac bin ocolnace
‘whoever will steal’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.186v)
(51g) hij tab v hol tech
‘wherever your end is’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.187r)
(52a) yanhi v hanal va bahun
‘he had to eat somewhat’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.436v)
(52b) baci y emelob v cħab va bal ti y otoch
‘that they don’t descend in order to take something from his home’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.437r)
(52c) y utzcinahob va bici
‘they improved it somehow’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.437r)
(52d) bin vilbech va biykin
‘I will see you sometime’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.437r)
(52e) kubente ti va mac
‘entrust it to someone!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.441v)
(52f) bin [h]okoc va tab citac
‘he will emerge from somewhere’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol.442v)
However, there must have been a third set of indefinite pronouns in the sixteenth century, not men-
tioned in the Calepino, for a letter bearing a date of 9 March 1567 contains the following phrase:
(53)
he bal v bal v baob
‘whatever their possessions may be’ (MID567:fol. 367, line 100)
This example, in which the relative pronoun is preceded by he instead of hi, is unique in that letter, which
has hi bic, hi bahun, and hi bal in other sentences. It is, of course, possible that the scribe erred in writing
he instead of hi in this phrase, but this is not the only example of he bal and the use of he with other relative
pronouns in Colonial Yucatec.
By the middle of the seventeenth century, there were additional examples of indefinite pronouns with
he in the Puuc region of Yucatan:
(54a) he bicil t u ɔahob
‘however they gave it’ (DZ651C-207A)
64 PRONOUNS
(54b) he bicil y ohelmail v kaxob ah couoh yan ti kan=che lae
‘inasmuch as he has known the forests of the Couoh people who are at Kanche’ (DZ651A-013A-013C)
They became common during the eighteenth century and thereafter:
(55a) he bahun kin cuxan y okol cab lae
‘for as many days as he is alive on earth’ (TK738I)
(55b) utzac
he bal au olah helel lae
‘it should be whatever you desire’ (OX738B-115B-115C)
(55c) he bix yanile
‘however it exists’ (OX738-011A)
(55d) he bahun bin v katee
‘as much as he will request’ (KAN790B)
(55e) he tux hop yn tzolic same
‘wherever I began to arrange it before’ (CHL713A)
(55f) he max y olahe
‘whoever wants it’ (KAN726A)
(55g) he max bin u ɔocbes inv almah-tħane
‘whoever will obey my commandment’ (V. Bricker 1981a:189, line 77)
Indefinite pronouns with hij coexisted with those based on he into the 1730s. The most recent examples
in my database with hij are in documents dated to 1733 and 1743:
(56a) ca yx ɔabac hentensia y okol hij mac bin sosouic
‘and that the sentence might be placed on whomever will disturb it’ (MA733D-315A-315B)
(56b) hij bicil manan yn tzaal tħan y okol lay kaax ɔoc v ppizil lae
‘however, I have no quarrel over this forest that has been measured’ (MA733F-625A-625C)
(56c) hij bicil mailmac v uinicil bin helbesic v tħan justisia
‘however, none are the men who will change the words of justice’ (MA733D-306A-306C)
(56d) c ilah ix v hahil tħan hij bicil yan jentensia ychile
‘and we saw the true word; however, there is a sentence in it’ (MA733G-708A-708C)
(56e) yt hi bahun ocan ti y ol ca cilich na ti santa yglesia
‘and however much enters the heart of our holy mother in the holy church’ (TK743F)
9.2. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS IN MODERN YUCATEC. Modern Yucatec has two kinds of indefinite pronouns.
One is introduced by the interrogative particle wáah (V. Bricker et al. 1998:298):
PRONOUNS
65
(57)
wáah b’áʔaš ‘something’
wáah b’áʔaš k’ìin ‘sometimes’
wáah b’iš ‘somehow’
wáah máaš ‘someone’
wáah túʔuš ‘somewhere’
The major difference between this set of indefinite pronouns and the ones listed in the second column of
(50) is that they use the interrogative instead of the relative form of the pronoun (e.g., wáah b’áʔaš instead
of wáah b’áʔal). Another difference is that wáah b’áʔaš k’ìin seems to have replaced ua bikin (phonetic
[wáah b’ik’in]) as the indefinite pronoun meaning ‘sometime.’
The second set of indefinite pronouns in Modern Yucatec occurs within the topical frame héʔe ...eʔ
(V. Bricker et al. 1998:102–103):
(58)
héʔe b’áʔaleʔ ‘whatever, anything’
héʔe b’áʔaseʔ ‘whatever, anything’
héʔe b’áʔaš k’ìin ‘whenever’
héʔe b’išeʔ ‘however, anyhow’
héʔe máašeʔ ‘whoever, anyone’
héʔe túʔušeʔ ‘wherever, anywhere’
In this case, there are two forms of the indefinite pronoun meaning ‘whatever, anything,’ one based on
the relative pronoun (héʔe b’áʔaleʔ) and the other on the interrogative pronoun (héʔe b’áʔašeʔ). The other
indefinite pronouns employ only the interrogative forms. And here, as in the indefinite pronouns in (57),
b’áʔaš k’ìin has replaced bikin in the temporal indefinite pronoun meaning ‘whenever.’
Uncertainty can be expressed by suffixing -ak to the pronoun in the héʔe ... eʔ frame (V. Bricker et al.
1998:28, 102–103):
(59)
héʔe b’áʔalakeʔ ‘whatever it may be’
héʔe b’áʔašakeʔ ‘whatever it may be’
héʔe b’išakeʔ ‘however it may be’
héʔe máašakeʔ ‘whoever it may be’
héʔe túʔušakeʔ ‘wherever it may be’
9.3. THE HISTORICAL STATUS OF TOPICALIZED INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. Although the Calepino de Motul
has no examples of indefinite pronouns with he, it does list he ... e as one
of its entries and describes it as
a topicalizing frame (Ciudad Real 1600?:fol. 179v), implying that it must have played a role in the evolution
of indefinite pronouns like hij bal into héʔe báʔaleʔ ‘whatever, anything.’ This could not have happened
directly because, although there are a few examples of hij ... e in the Calepino (e.g., [51c, f]), the topicaliz-
ing enclitic was clearly not obligatory in such contexts (e.g., [51a–b, d–e, g]). Nor did it appear consistently
after he had replaced hij later in the Colonial period, having been represented in at most 72 percent of the
examples from the second half of the eighteenth century in my data base (N = 25). The relative frequency
was similar during the first 70 years of the nineteenth century: 77 percent (N = 111). I have only three docu-
ments from the rest of that century and no more documents until the 1930s, when the topicalizing enclitic
appeared consistently with indefinite pronouns preceded by he. In other words, the indefinite pronouns
beginning with he must have completed the transition to their modern form as part of the héʔe ...eʔ topi-
calizing frame sometime between 1870 and 1935.
66 PRONOUNS
10. SUMMARY OF PRONOMINAL CHANGES THROUGH TIME
Colonial Yucatec distinguished between two forms of the first-person plural clitic pronoun, one used before
glottal-stop-initial nominal and verbal stems and the other preceding stems beginning with other conso-
nants. They were merged into a single form, first documented during the late eighteenth century, and
continuing into Modern Yucatec. The abbreviated form of the glottal-stop-initial first-person singular clitic
pronoun that was common in Colonial Yucatec is not evident in Modern Yucatec, perhaps because of its
potential confusion with the glottal-stop-initial second-person pronominal enclitic.
The third-person independent pronoun in Colonial Yucatec has undergone several changes, beginning
with its attachment to a preposition, followed by the raising of its original vowel from [a] to [e]. The stative
pronouns once ubiquitous in notarial documents vanished from the language after independence from
Spain in 1821.
CHAPTER 5
TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
The Spanish Franciscan priests who produced grammars of Colonial Yucatec (Juan Coronel in 1620, Gabriel
de San Buenaventura in 1684, and Pedro Beltrán de Santa Rosa María in 1746) described the inflection of
verbs in this New World language in terms of Latin templates (Hanks 2010:207–210). Because Latin has a
A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Page 14