(52a) ɔoci v ganartabal t u men Teodora
‘he finished being vanquished by Teodora’ (Kaua n.d.:I, 54L)
(52b) ca tun ganartab_ u batelob t u men ɔulob
‘and then their battle was won by the foreigners’ (Códice Pérez n.d.:48)
By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the /b/ in -abal had been reduced to a glottal stop, which
was never recorded in the orthography in use at the time, as can be seen in the following example of an
imperfective passive based on firmar ‘to sign’:
(52c) ɔoc u firmartal u actail
‘the certificate finished being signed’ (NAN851A)
The subjunctive stem of a passive based on a transitive derived from a Spanish loan can be illustrated
with -ac suffixed to the Spanish infinitive, purgar ‘to purge,’ and the passive suffix -ab:
(52d) paibe bin purgartabac ua yan v ppu bail ti
‘first, he will be purged if he has gas’ (Kaua n.d.:II, 10R)
1.2.5.3. THE ANTIPASSIVE VOICE IN TRANSITIVES DERIVED FROM SPANISH LOANS. The imperfective stem
of antipassives derived from Spanish loans was marked by no suffix, which meant that it was represented
by the Spanish infinitive alone:
(53)
y. xan a purgar
‘and if you also purge,
168
TRANSITIVE VERBS
c u kaxil ti max c uy ukik yax halal chee
whoever drinks10 the slipper flower will defecate’ (Kaua n.d.:II, 25R)
There are no examples of the perfective stem of antipassives derived from Spanish loans in the Colonial
and nineteenth-century documents in my database, but I can offer the following examples from Modern
Yucatec based on the Spanish infinitives, aliviar ‘to alleviate, assuage, soothe, relieve’ and juntar ‘to join,
connect, unite; assemble, congregate, gather’:
(54a) b’isáʔah ʔiknal doktóor
‘she was taken to a doctor,
káʔah ʔáalibyàarnahih
and she recovered’ (EBT979B)
(54b) pwes káʔah húuntarnahóʔon u máasil hèenteh túuneʔ
‘well then we, the rest of the people, assembled then’ (EBT979C)
The subjunctive stem of such antipassives can be illustrated by two examples of mid-nineteenth-
century date:
(55a) mix bikin bin ganarnac ɔulob enemigoob
‘the enemy whites will never win’ (V. Bricker 1981a:200, lines 447–448)
(55b) halili le cruzoob bin ganarnace
‘only these people of the Cross will win’ (V. Bricker 1981a:200, lines 449–450)
1.2.6. VOICE IN TRANSITIVES DERIVED FROM ADJECTIVES, PARTICLES, POSITIONALS, AND AFFECTS. Two
suffixes, -cin and -cun, derived transitives from adjectival, particle, positional, and affect roots and stems
in Colonial Yucatec. A rule of reverse vowel harmony dictated that the suffix with the front vowel, /i/, fol-
lowed roots containing the back vowels, /o/ and /u/, and that the suffix with the back vowel, /u/, followed
roots containing the non-back vowels, /a/, /e/, and /i/. The cognates of these suffixes in Modern Yucatec
are -k(í)in and -k(ú)un.
1.2.6.1. THE ACTIVE VOICE IN TRANSITIVES DERIVED FROM ADJECTIVES, PARTICLES, POSITIONALS, AND
AFFECTS. The active voice of transitives derived by -cin or -cun was marked by -ic (imperfective), -ah (per-
fective), and -e/-Ø in Colonial Yucatec. The following examples illustrate their use with utz-cin ‘to fix, repair,
improve’ (from utz ‘good, just, well made’):
(56a) v nak v xuli tun uil y utzcinic
‘he no longer fixes it’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 322v)
(56b) bic v ɔib au ol ca av utzcinah cuchi
‘what was on your mind when you fixed it?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 444r)
(56c) baix ɔibanil ychil v testamento y utzcinah ca cimi Franco Chim lae
‘and thus it is written in the testament that was executed when this Francisco Chim died’
(DZ593B-107A-B, 108)
TRANSITIVE VERBS
169
(56d) ma=bal çihunbil t a pucçikal ca bin av utzcin_
‘you will fix nothing voluntarily’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 103r)
The examples in (57a–b) show that -cin can occur with root-medial /o/:
(57a) hi=uil tab citan v lochcinic v bacel
‘who knows where he will bend his bones! [i.e., where he will die]’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 271v)
(57b) a menyah xacin bin in tohcin
‘will I repair your work?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 454r)
On the other hand, -cun co-occurs only with root-medial /a/, /e/, and /i/:
(58a) ma a hahcunic manaan maix a manaancunic
‘don’t confirm what isn’t, nor deny what is!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 172v)
(58b) v manaancunah v tħan t u yax chun v confession
‘he denied it at the beginning of his confession’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 296r)
(58c) kux=il kexcunicon y etel nachcunicon y icnal Dios
‘hatred separates us and alienates us from God’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 245v)
(58d) ma au ixma tijcunic a yum
‘don’t insult your father!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 229v)
In a few derived transitive stems in the Calepino de Motul, -cin and -cun are followed by -t, the suffix
commonly used for deriving transitives from nouns, without apparent change in meaning. Compare, for
example:
(59a) yan a paycun cħuplal
‘you have bewitched a woman’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 361v)
(59b) yan va a paycuntic cħuplal
‘have you bewitched a woman?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 361v)
In the next example (60), -cin is followed by -t and can be compared with the example of utzcinah in (56b):11
(60)
lay tac etsah tech u lumil a kaxex
‘this land of your forest that we showed you
t au utzcintahex a hun=kul=tialtex
that you-all certified had belonged to you since time immemorial’ (SB596C-299A-C)
The number of examples of -cin and -cun with -t gradually increased over time and eventually com-
pletely replaced those without it.
170
TRANSITIVE VERBS
By 1850, -s had joined -t as an alternative suffix to be added to -cin and -cun:
(61a) le bax c inu almah=tħantica
‘these things I command
ti=olal u cahcunt(i)cob t u pucsikalob
in order that they cause to reside in their hearts
t u lacal le inu aalmah=tħana
all these commandments of mine’ (V. Bricker 1981a:191, lines 134–137)
(61b) in yamail cristiano cahex
‘my beloved Christian villagers,
cahcunsex t u lacal inv almah=tħan t a pucsikalexo
you should cause all those commandments of mine to reside in your hearts’ (V. Bricker 1981a:201,
lines 489–493)
The causative stem (cahcunt[i]cob) in (61a) contains the causative suffix -cun followed by -t, whereas the
corresponding stem in (61b) (cahcunsex) contains the same causative suffix followed by -s.
All such causative stems in Modern Yucatec today have two forms, one with -t following either -k(í)in or
-k(ú)un, and the other with -s following these causative suffixes:
(62a) u b’áašal=t’àan le wíinikoʔ k u čahkúunsik le š č’úupaloʔ
‘that man’s joke, it makes that girl blush’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:59)
(62b) t a k’omohkíintik le lùučoʔ
‘you are causing that gourd to stink’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:156)
(62c) t in k’ab’aʔkúunsah h wàan le čàam=b’aloʔ
‘I named that child Jo
hn’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:142)
(62d) le wàakšoʔ t u k’askúuntah in kòol
‘that cow destroyed my cornfield’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:148)
Each of these verbs has a second form — čahkúuntik, k’omohkíinsik, k’ab’aʔkúuntah, and k’askúunsah —
that could have substituted for the verbs in these example sentences without any change in meaning.
1.2.6.2. THE PASSIVE VOICE IN TRANSITIVES DERIVED FROM ADJECTIVES, PARTICLES, POSITIONALS, AND
AFFECTS. The passive voice of transitives derived by -cin and -cun was marked by -ab, to which -al (imper-
fective), -i/-Ø (perfective), and -ac (subjunctive) were added in Colonial Yucatec:
(63a) keban=oltzil v cocintabal ix ma=yum ix ma=naa
‘it is pitiful for orphans to be mistreated’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 243r)
(63b) yanil u uilal v chichcunabal v mul=tumutob
‘it was necessary for their deliberations to be ratified’ (MA596-003A-B)
TRANSITIVE VERBS 171
(63c) v yax culcintab u noh mul=tunil
‘the great mound was the very first one that was established’ (SB596B-067A-B)
(63d) vacunabech t a beel ti ma a nahma
‘you were placed in your position without deserving it’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 294r)
(63e) ma taben yan cochom ca bin cocintabac in yum inen cen batab
‘I will not be there when my father is insulted, because I am the leader’ (Ciudad Real 1600?:
fol. 226v)
The /b/ in -ab has been reduced to a glottal stop in Modern Yucatec:
(64a) in kìikeʔ ȼ’óʔok u kahkúuntáʔal t u mèen h pèedroh
‘as for my older sister, she’s been housed by Peter [living together out of wedlock]’ (V. Bricker et al.
1998:120)
(64b) táan u šìiʔkuntáʔal h pèedroh t u mèen u čìič
‘Peter is being made a man by his grandmother’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:257)
(64c) ʔòoš p’éel bàarkoh b’in u hèenteh káʔačih
‘they say that there were three boats of people then;
káʔah p’éeloeʔ lah šìiškuntáʔab’ih
as for two of them, they were ground to bits’ (CHC971B:13)
(64d) tíʔiʔ séen ʔóoȼilkúunsáʔab’_ ʔanimáas Antonio Aguilar
‘there, the late Antonio Aguilar was impoverished’ (SOT971A:6)
1.2.6.3. THE ANTIPASSIVE VOICE IN TRANSITIVES DERIVED FROM ADJECTIVES, PARTICLES, POSITIONALS,
AND AFFECTS. The antipassive voice in transitives derived by -cin and -cun is not detectable in my database,
probably because the antipassive suffix, -n, cannot be distinguished from the final consonant in -cin and
-cun.
2. USATIVE TRANSITIVES
The Calepino de Motul lists a number of transitive stems that are derived from nominal roots with the
suffixes, -in or -int, which often have the meaning ‘to take for’ or ‘to acquire’ the object referred to by the
noun from which it is derived, and for this reason, -in has been called a “usative” suffix (-t is the suffix that
derives transitive stems from nominal roots) (V. Bricker 1970). Below are listed some of the transitive verbs
that co-occur with this suffix and the nouns from which they are derived:
(65)
Nominal
Usative
Root
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
ahau ruler
ahauin
to take for king, have as king
bal brother-in-law
balin
to take for relative by marrying sister
cen
decoration, adornment
cenin(t)
to take as decoration
172
TRANSITIVE VERBS
ex
breeches, trousers
exin(t)
to serve as breeches or trousers for someone
kaba name
kabatin
to take for a name
kuul god
kuulin(t)
to take for a god; worship false god
lak
companion, neighbor
lakin(t)
to accompany, take for a companion
mam
maternal grandfather
mamin(t)
to become related through marriage
naa mother
naain(t)
to take for a mother
nen mirror
nenin(t)
to take for a mirror
nok clothes
nokin
to use as clothes
och food
ochin(t)
to take for sustenance or food
pak
benefit, use
pakin
to benefit from, thrive, prosper
ppic overload
ppicin
to take as overload
uey concubine
ueyin(t)
to take as concubine
tzub prostitute
tzubin(t)
to take for a concubine
Some examples of their use in context appear below (see also [69a–d]):
(66a) in mamintah batab
‘I acquired the leader as a relative [when my son married his daughter’s daughter]’ (Ciudad Real
1600?: fol. 293r)
(66b) in naainah Juana
‘I took Jane for my mother’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 321v)
(66c) cha in nok a nokin
‘take my clothes to use them for yourself!’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 331r)
(66d) bin vochinte au och
‘I will take your food as mine’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 345v)
(66e) yan xin a tzubintic hun=payil cħuplal
‘have you taken another woman as a concubine?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 120v)
Within this group of transitive stems with the usative suffix are three terms that refer to taking or
acquiring someone as a kinsman: bal-in, mam-in(t), and naa-in(t). There is a much larger class of such verbs
derived from kin terms with -in(t) in Modern Yucatec; in fact, virtually any kin term can be transitivized in
this way (V. Bricker 1970):
(67)
Nominal
Usative
Root
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
ʔáal
woman’s child
ʔáalint
to adopt
ʔilib’
daughter-in-law
ʔilib’int
to acquire as a daughter-in-law
b’àal
brother-in-law
b’àalint
to acquire as a brother-in-law
háʔan son-in-law
háʔanint
to take for a son-in-law
kìik
older sister
kìikint
to take for an older sister
tàatah father
tàatahint
to acquire as a father
yùum father
yùumint
to take for a father
TRANSITIVE VERBS 173
As in Colonial Yucatec, the usative suffix is not limited to kin terms in Modern Yucatec:
(68)
Nominal
Usative
Root
Gloss
Stem
Gloss
š b’áʔal female, girlfriend [slang] š b’áʔalint
to take for a girlfriend
k’úʔum hominy
k’úʔumint
to use as hominy
láak’
other, sibling
láak’int
to accompany, escort
neh tail
nehint
to tag along
pàal
infant, child,
minor
pàalint
to give birth; adopt
Contextual examples of the use of the usative suffix with a variety of nouns, including one kin term, appear
below:
(69a) nuk u háʔaninteh
‘he is going to make him his son-in-law’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:97)
(69b) t in k’ab’aʔintah h pèedroh
‘I took “Peter” as my name’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:142)
(69c) le ʔíʔinaheʔ t in k’úʔumintah
‘this seed, I used it for hominy’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:159)
(69d) mikáʔah im pàalinteč
‘I’m going to adopt you’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:207)
3. DEFECTIVE VERBS
Both Colonial and Modern Yucatec have three transitive verbal expressions that are defective in the sense
that they are not inflected for aspect with either suffixes or head words. One is based on the transitive root,
kat (phonetic [k’áat]) ‘to want.’ Another is derived from oh, a root of unknown meaning. And the third is a
compound stem, composed of an intransitive root, kah (phonetic [k’áʔah]) ‘to remember,’ and a nominal
root, ol (phonetic [ʔóol]) ‘heart (non-corporeal); mind, will, desire, energy, spirit’ (see 6. in Chapter 6). “Nor-
mal” versions of these defective verbs with related meanings are produced by suffixing -t to the defective
stems and inflecting them with aspectual suffixes and head words.
3.1. DEFECTIVE AND NORMAL VERSIONS OF KAT. The defective version of kat was kati in Colonial Yucatec,
which is glossed as ‘to want, lack; be necessary’ in the Calepino de Motul (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 240r).
These meanings are documented in the following contextual examples from the Calepino:
(70a) bahun v tan a kati
‘how wide a piece do you want?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 410r)
(70b) v chay takin v kati
‘the rest of the money is lacking’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 136r)
174
TRANSITIVE VERBS
(70c) a kati au atante Maria
‘do you want to marry Mary?’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 37v)
(70d) yeybil
v kati
‘it is necessary to be chosen’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 218r)
(70e) in kati in citz in ba t in tzaa
‘I want to withdraw from the dispute that I initiated’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 74v)
(70f) in kati in helbez in beel te t in tan lic v talele
‘I want to change my life from now on’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 415v)
Page 149 of the Hocaba dictionary (V. Bricker et al. 1998) contains two examples of káatih, the Modern
A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Page 30