A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000)
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present tense, they assumed that Colonial Yucatec had such a tense as well, not realizing that there were
no tenses in this language at all. For this reason, none of the grammars that were produced during the
Colonial period are useful sources on the verbs in this language ( pace Robertson 1992:Chapter 9).
Instead of tenses, Colonial Yucatec had a system of preposed aspectual particles and/or suffixes that
indicated whether the actions referred to by the verbs had been completed (perfective) or were still in
progress (imperfective). Events in the more distant past or future were marked as uncertain with subjunc-
tive or optative suffixes. In this sense, mood was treated as part of the tense/aspect system.
The aspectual and subjunctive suffixes differed depending on whether the verb in question was tran-
sitive or intransitive and whether the verb stem was a root or derived transitive or intransitive. In fact, root
transitives and intransitives represented separate form classes in this language (the other form classes
were positionals, affects, nouns, adjectives, particles, and numerals).
1. ASPECTUAL VERB STEMS
1.1. INTRANSITIVE VERBS. A distinctive characteristic of intransitive verbs in both Colonial and Modern
Yucatec is the use of ergative pronouns from set A for the subject with the imperfective stem and ab-
solutive pronouns from set B for the same purpose with the perfective and subjunctive stems. This in-
consistent treatment of the subjects of intransitive verbs with different aspectual stems is known as the
“ergative split” in this language. Another kind of split, contrasting the use of ergative pronouns with first-
and second- person subjects with the use of absolutive pronouns for third-person subjects characterized
intransitive verbs in adverbial focus constructions in Colonial Yucatec (Yasugi 2005:82), but did not survive
into Modern Yucatec (see 5. below).
1.1.1. ASPECTUAL INFLECTION OF INTRANSITIVE VERBS IN COLONIAL YUCATEC. The aspectual stem suf-
fixes of root intransitives in Colonial Yucatec were -i (perfective), -Vc (subjunctive), and -Vl (imperfective)
(V indicates that the vowel in the suffix was a copy of the root vowel). The following paradigm illustrates
the use of the perfective suffix, -i (phonetic [-ih]), with kuch ‘to arrive’:
67
68
TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
(1)
Singular
Plural
1st *kuch-i-en ‘I arrived’
kuch-i-(o)on ‘we arrived’
2nd *kuch-i-ech ‘you arrived’
*kuch-i-(e)ex ‘you-all arrived’
3rd kuch-i-Ø ‘he/she arrived’
kuch-i-ob ‘they arrived’
By the time the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan in the middle of the sixteenth century, [i] had assimilated with
the immediately following [e] in -en, -ech, and -ex of the first- and second-person suffixed pronouns. How-
ever, it can be inferred from its presence in kuch-i-Ø, kuch-i-on, and kuch-i-ob in the following examples
from my documentary database:
(2a)
kuchi ua Juan ti kaknabe
‘did John arrive at the sea?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 455v)
(2b) ca
kuchiob t u tancabal na ɔay cab canule campech
‘then they arrived at property of Na-ɔay Cab Canul of Campeche’ (CHX-449A-C)
(2c)
vai ti kuchion t u chun v mulil tabi
‘here we arrived at the base of the mound of Tabi’ (YT718B-104A-B)
The same sets of suffixes occur with hul ‘to arrive (here),’ suggesting that these are not isolated examples:
(3a)
Melchor Canche Pedro Ucan huli
‘Melchor Canche and Peter Ucan arrived here’ (MA557-043)
(3b)
hek lay u kabaob al-mehenob huliob uay ti cah lae
‘these are the names of the nobles who arrived here in this town’ (MA557-017A-B)
(3c)
vay ti hulion t u hol ek luum t u chun vitz
‘here we arrived at the entrance to the black earth at the base of the mountain’ (MA733C-205A-B)
The subjunctive stem of root intransitives is marked by -Vc, where V indicates that the vowel in the suf-
fix is a copy of the vowel in the root:
(4)
Singular
Plural
1st cim-ic-en ‘I might die’
cim-ic-(o)on ‘we might die’
2nd cim-ic-ech ‘you might die’
*cim-ic-(e)ex ‘you-all might die’
3rd cim-ic- Ø ‘he/she might die’
cim-ic-ob ‘they might die’
Some examples of the use of these forms of cim ‘to die’ in context appear below:
(5a) olac
cimicen çame
‘I almost died then!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 349v)
(5b)
ti ma k ohel va yx bin cimicen yn yanil tin cħapahal yn yanil lae
‘for we do not know if I will die from this illness of mine’ (TK730C)
TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
69
(5c)
bin uil cimicech tix ma-ma kin
will you die without warning?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 229r)
(5d) hij
cimic Juan
‘it is possible that John will die’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 184r)
(5e)
maih kazacon maih cimicon achac u keban ca yax yumobe
‘we would not be bad, nor would we die, if it were not for the original sin of our first fathers’ (Ciudad
Real 1600?: fol. 224v)
(5f)
ua ixa bici bin u cibob tin pixane
‘however they treat my soul,
ba ix bin y oltic Dios y uchul t a pixanob ca bin cimicobe
God wishes it to happen to your souls when they die’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 440r)
(5g)
yan bin cimicobi
‘they will die’ (Tizimin n.d.: fol. 21v)
The use of the subjunctive stem with the second-person plural subject is exemplified in (6) with lik ‘to rise’:
(6)
bin ix likicex
‘and you-all will rise up’ (Gordon 1913:66)
The imperfective stem of root intransitives is usually marked by -Vl, in which the vowel is a copy of the
root vowel, and the ergative pronouns from set A serve as subjects:
(7)
Singular
Plural
1st
in ben-el ‘I go’
ca ben-el ‘we go’
2nd
a ben-el ‘you go’
a ben-el-(e)ex ‘you-all go’
3rd
u ben-el ‘he/she goes’
u ben-el-(o)ob ‘they go’
The Calepino de Motul contains numerous examples of each of these forms in context, a small sample of
which appears below:
(8a)
in benel vac ti cħail
‘I go wherever I am taken’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 437r)
(8b)
v nah a benel
‘it is advantageous for you to go’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 319r)
(8c) ma
v benel Juan Pedro cix xijc
John is not going; it is better that Peter goes’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 74v)
(8d)
nach y ocil licil ca benel
‘we are going far away’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 318r)
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TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
(8e)
va ma tan ppatbex a kebane hun-kuli a benelex mitnal
‘if you-all don’t abandon your sins, you-all will go to Hell forever!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 199r)
(8f)
pim t u ba vinic lic v benelob metnal
/>
‘many people go to Hell’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 376v)
Not all root intransitives in Colonial Yucatec formed their imperfective stems by suffixing -Vl to the root.
The exceptions — tal ‘to come,’ mal ‘to pass,’ and hul ‘to arrive (here)’ — suffixed -el to the root: tal-el, mal-el,
and hul-el:
(9a)
cħucħuy u talelob
‘they come very slowly’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 159r)
(9b)
hauex a ba licil v malel padre
‘open a path for the priest to pass!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 178r)
(9c)
halex va-bay-kin av ulelex uaye
‘announce when you-all are coming here!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 437r)
Eventually, there was an additional exception, when the [e] in ben ‘to go’ was raised to [i], resulting in bin
‘to go’ and its imperfective stem, bin-el:
(10)
tan v binel ti yan multun t u nix vitz sac nicte
‘he was going to where there was a mound on the slope of the White Flower Mountain’
(SB596B-098-099)
The aspectual suffixes employed by derived intransitives in Colonial Yucatec were, for the most part,
similar to those employed by root intransitives, except that when the derived intransitive was marked by a
derivational suffix containing a vowel, the vowel in the -Vc and -Vl suffixes for the subjunctive and imperfec-
tive stems was a copy of the vowel in the derivational suffix (usually schwa), rather than of the root vowel
(e.g., 1.2.2.2. in Chapter 7).
1.1.2. ASPECTUAL INFLECTION OF INTRANSITIVE VERBS IN MODERN YUCATEC. The aspectual stem suffixes
of root intransitives in Modern Yucatec are -ih (perfective), -Vk (subjunctive), and -Vl (imperfective), corre-
sponding exactly to their counterparts in Colonial Yucatec. Although the perfective stem suffix is still -ih, it
surfaces only when the subject of the verb is in the third person, continuing a process that was already well
underway during the first century of the Colonial period:
(11)
Singular
Plural
1st
k’uč-Ø-en ‘I arrived’
k’uč-Ø-óʔon ‘we arrived’
2nd
k’uč-Ø-eč ‘you arrived’
k’uč-Ø-éʔeš ‘you-all arrived’
3rd
k’uč-ih-Ø ‘he/she arrived’
k’uč-Ø-óʔob’ ‘they arrived’
However, -ih occurs today only when the verb appears at the end of a phrase (Blair and Vermont-Salas
1965:342):
TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD 71
(12a) h tàalih
‘he came’
(12b) h tàalih máasimaʔ
‘he came, didn’t he?’
(12c) h tàalih hwàan
did he come, John?’
It does not appear in phrase-medial position (1965:342):
(13a) h tàal_ aw éet kàahal
‘your compatriot came’
(13b) h tàal_ u šíimb’aten
he came to visit me’
(13c) h tàal_ hwàan
‘John came’
In other words, -ih has become a phrase-terminal marker in Modern Yucatec (1965:343).
The subjunctive stem of root intransitives in Modern Yucatec is identical to its counterpart in Colonial
Yucatec in all contexts:
(14)
Singular
Plural
1st kíim-ik-en ‘I might die’
kíim-ik-óʔon ‘we might die’
2nd kíim-ik-eč ‘you might die’
kíim-ik-éʔeš ‘you-all might die’
3rd kíim-ik-Ø ‘he/she might die’
kíim-ik-óʔob’ ‘they might die’
An example of the use of kíim-ik in the third-person singular appears below:
(15)
tum b’in trèes ʔànyos kíimik inw íičam
‘it’s going on three years since my husband died’ (EBT979C)
The subjunctive stems of k’uč ‘to arrive,’ luk’ ‘to leave,’ ok ‘to enter,’ and tàal ‘to come’ have the same structure:
(16a) tak káʔah k’učuk wey tak k’íiwik
‘until he arrived here at the plaza’ (V. Bricker 1981a:235, line 473)
(16b) máʔ ʔuȼ t u t’àanóʔob’iʔ káʔah luk’uk u hèenteh ʔéeb’tùuneʔ
‘they did not like it that the people of Ebtun left’ (CHK979)
(16c) káʔah túun ʔòokok túun t u sèentroh e kàahoʔ
‘that he might enter then the center of that town’ (EBT979C)
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TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
(16d) iŋ k’át ká talakéʔeš
‘I want you (pl.) to come’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1967:568).
For the most part, the imperfective stems of root intransitives in Modern Yucatec use the -Vl suffix as
exemplified by ʔah ‘to wake up’:
(17)
Singular
Plural
1st
iŋw ah-al ‘I wake up’
k ʔah-al ‘we wake up’
2nd
aw ah-al ‘you wake up’
aw ah-al-éʔeš ‘you-all wake up’
3rd
(u)y ah-al ‘he/she wakes up’
(u)y ah-al-óʔob’ ‘they wake up’
An example of the use of ʔah-al in the first-person singular appears below:
(18)
tèen túuneʔ šan inw ahal túun
‘as for me, then, also, I woke up then’ (EBT979A)
The use of the imperfective stem with other root intransitives — kíim ‘to die,’ líik’ to rise up,’ and ʔúuč ‘to
happen’ — in Modern Yucatec is shown in (19a–c):
(19a) kíimóʔob’ b’ey u kíimil b’áʔal=čéʔeʔ
‘they died as animals die’ (V. Bricker 1981a:248, lines 1059–1060)
(19b) pwes káʔah t ú líik’il e hèenteh t u láakal káʔah k’ahóoltaóob’oʔ
‘well, when all those people who knew about it were rising up,
t u láakal káʔah túuneʔ
all of them then’ (EBT979C)
(19c) miš b’áʔal k uy úučul
‘nothing was happening’ (V. Bricker 1981a:247, line 1025)
As in Colonial Yucatec, the exceptions in Modern Yucatec are the imperfective stems based on Colonial
ben ‘to go,’ hul ‘to arrive (here),’ mal ‘to pass,’ and tal ‘to come,’ none of which have retained their original
aberrant -el suffix. benel had already become binel before the end of the Colonial period, and malel was
becoming manel. Subsequently, binel became b’in, hulel became ʔúʔul, manel became máan, and talel
became tàal, which are their present imperfective stems:
(20a) k
u b’in b’ey bàantáaʔ
‘he goes into this district’ (V. Bricker 1981a:241, line 750)
(20b) láah k u b’inóʔob’ way sàantah krùuseʔ
‘everyone leaves Holy Cross here’ (V. Bricker 1981a:234, line 449)
(20c) t iŋw ilah uy úʔul
‘I saw him arrive’ (Blair and Vermont-Salas 1967:689)
TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD 73
(20d) ȼ’ u máan tàab’iʔ
he finished passing Tabi’ (V. Bricker 1981a:234, line 446)
(20e) letiʔ u tàaloʔ
‘it is he who comes there’ (V. Bricker 1981a:234, line 449)
1.1.3. THE PROPHETIC FUTURE MARKED BY -OM. Prophetic statements in the Books of Chilam Balam of
Chumayel and Tizimin are often based on intransitive roots and stems marked by -om, instead of the sub-
junctive suffix, and without any aspectual head word or particle. The following prophetic passage in the
Book of Chilam Balam of
Chumayel (Gordon 1913:100) contains two intransitive roots, em ‘to descend’ and
el ‘to burn,’ both of which are suffixed by -om:
(21)
emom u kikel che y tunich
‘the blood of trees and stones shall descend;
elom caan y luum
‘sky and earth shall burn1
1.2. TRANSITIVE VERBS. As far as aspectual stem suffixes are concerned, root and derived transitives dif-
fered primarily in the form of the subjunctive suffixes they took in Colonial Yucatec. This distinction is no
longer present in Modern Yucatec, where the Colonial form of the root transitive subjunctive suffix has
completely disappeared, and root transitives now have the same form of this suffix as derived transitives.
1.2.1. ASPECTUAL INFLECTION OF TRANSITIVE VERBS IN COLONIAL YUCATEC. The aspectual stem suffixes
of root transitives in Colonial Yucatec were -ah (perfective), -ic (imperfective), -ma (present perfect), and
-Vb (subjunctive) (V indicates that the vowel in the suffix was a copy of the root vowel). The following par-
adigm illustrates the use of the perfective suffix, -ah (phonetic [-ax]) with haɔ ‘to whip’ and third-person
singular direct objects:
(22)
Singular
Plural
1st
in haɔ-ah-Ø ‘I whipped him/her’
ca haɔ-ah-Ø ‘we whipped him/her’
2nd
a haɔ-ah-Ø ‘you whipped him/her’
a haɔ-ah-ex-Ø ‘you-all whipped him/her’
3rd
u haɔ-ah-Ø ‘he/she whipped him/her’
u haɔ-ah-ob-Ø ‘they whipped him/her’
An example of haɔ-ah followed by a first-person singular direct object comes from the Calepino de Motul:
(23)
v haɔahen in xiblil t u men y aal=tħan Maria
‘my husband whipped me because of Mary’s gossip’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 1r)
Several examples of -ah with other root transitives (key ‘scold, berate,’ chuc ‘nab, catch,’ pat ‘form with
hands, shape /wax/, mold /clay/,’ çupp ‘block road,’ and mol ‘gather, collect’) and other direct objects appear
below:
(24a) v keyahen batab
‘the leader scolded me’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 244r)
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TENSE/ASPECT AND MOOD
(24b) ppi otzilech t in chucahech
‘oh, poor you, I caught you’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 389v)
(24c) v patahon Dios ti vinicil ti ma=balon cuchi
‘God shaped us into men when we were nothing’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 367)
(24d) a çuppahex va be tal cumkal