‘straight, aligned’
stroke’
çij
čijlan
síih
siʔan
‘to give, make ‘offered, given’
‘to donate, make
‘donated’
offering’
a gift’
ADJECTIVES
265
ɔac
ɔacan
ȼ’ak
ȼ’akáʔan
‘to cure, heal; ‘cured, healed;
‘to cure, heal, take ‘cured’
poison
poisoned’
advantage of,
/a beverage/’
overcharge’
chaa
chaan
čaʔ
čáʔan
‘to loosen,
‘loose’
‘to free, loosen,
‘liberated, freed’
untie;
untie, release,
alleviate;
allow, let’
assist’
cħih
cħihaan ~ cħiyaan
č’ih
č’iháʔan
‘to grow’
‘grown’
‘to make old, age’ ‘old’
hel
helan
hel
heláʔan
‘to change
‘changed, distorted,
‘to change
‘different, strange
/occupation, different, strange’
/clothes, dress/’
[unacceptable behavior]’
clothes/,
exchange,
return,
recompense’
hij
hijan
hiʔ
hiʔan
‘to grind, whet, ‘sharp, keen’
‘to rub, smooth,
‘rubbed, smoothed, ironed’
sharpen’
iron’
he
hean
heʔ
heʔan
‘to open
‘open’
‘to open’
‘opened’
/doors,
windows/’
pocħ
pocħan
poč’
poč’áʔan
‘to insult,
‘insulting, disrespectful’ ‘to insult’
‘insulted’
dishonor,
reprove,
condemn’
tħab
tħaban
t’ab’
t’ab’áʔan
‘to light, kindle ‘lighted, kindled
‘to light, kindle’
‘lighted, angry’
/candle,
(candle, lamp)’
lamp/’
In general, they seem to have a passive meaning, although in at least one case (pocħan ‘insulting, disre-
spectful’), the gloss was gerundial in Colonial Yucatec. So also is the meaning of one participle derived from
a transitive root in Modern Yucatec that lacks a cognate in Colonial Yucatec: b’okáʔan ‘reeking’ (< bok ‘to
perfume, fumigate’).
266 ADJECTIVES
Two of the participles derived from positional roots in Colonial Yucatec have cognates in Modern
Yucatec:
(41)
Colonial
Modern
Positional
Positional
Root
Participle
Root
Participle
cul
culaan
kul
kuláʔan
‘to sit down,
‘be in a place; seated’
‘to sit down’
‘be in a place’
reside,
be in place’
tħon
tħonan
t’on
t’onáʔan
‘to lean, droop ‘humble, weak’
‘to droop (sick
‘fatigued, sick’
[from
animal, flowers)’
sickness]’
tħonaan
‘weak, faint’
They, too, seem to have passive meanings in both dialects of the language.
Four participles derived from intransitive roots in Colonial Yucatec have cognates in Modern Yucatec:
(42)
Colonial
Modern
Intransitive
Intransitive
Root
Participle
Root
Participle
ben ~ bin
binan ~ bihan
b’in
biháʔan
‘to go’
‘gone’
‘to go’
‘gone’
ɔoc
ɔocaan
ȼ’óʔok
ȼ’okáʔan
‘to end, be
‘finished, ended;
‘to finish, end’
‘finished, ended’
finished,
complete, perfect’
be over’
can
canaan
káʔan
káʔanáʔan
‘to tire,
‘tired’
‘to tire’
‘tired’
become tired’
lik
likaan
líik’
lik’áʔan
‘to rise, ascend; ‘raised’
‘to rise, ascend’
‘raised’
leave a place’
They, like the participles derived from other verbal roots, have a passive meaning. However, four Colonial
participles based on intransitive roots that do not have Modern cognates have gerundial meanings:
(43)
Intransitive
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
ah
wake up
ahan
awake
el
burn
elan
burned, burning
ADJECTIVES
267
hok
come out, emerge,
hokaan
emergent
appear, sprout,
turn out
uen
sleep, dream
uenan
sleeping
Glosses like ‘burning,’ ‘emergent,’ and ‘sleeping’ refer to events in progress, not completed.
The participle derived from ben/bin ‘to go’ in Colonial Yucatec had two forms: binan ~ bihan ‘gone,’ and
its Modern cognate is b’iháʔan (< b’in-ah-áʔan) (see the first set of examples in [42] above and the compar-
ison of the completive and present perfect aspects in 3. in Chapter 5).
The Calepino de Motul lists seven participles that were derived from adjectival roots with -(a)an in Colo-
nial Yucatec:
(44)
Adjectival
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
cet
equal, even; jointly,
cetan
adjusted
together
cii
sweet, tasty,
cian ~ ciyan
drunk
delicious, pleasant
co
crazy, foolish, insolent; coyaan
crazy, flighty, lewd; mischievous
boisterous, roguish,
cunning, deceitful
çaal
light [not heavy]
çalan
light
cħuy
slowly, little by little
cħuyaan
now and then; unresolved (dispute)
nach
far, distant, extended,
nachaan
far, distant, apart
long (shadow)
xab
scattered, spread
xaban
separated, scattered; mixed with
different things
None of these participles have cognates in Modern Yucatec. Only four participles derived from adjectival
roots with -áʔan are mentioned in the Hocaba dictionary of Modern Yucatec:
(45)
Adjectival
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
ʔal
heavy
ʔaláʔan
heavy
noh
principal
noháʔan
mature, reasonable (child); useful
nùuk
big (plural)
núʔukáʔan
middle-sized
sùuk
tame, accustomed
sùukáʔan
customary
Three times as many participles derived from nouns as from adjectives with -(a)an appear in the
Calepino de Motul, of which the following are representative:
(46)
Nominal
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
bool
payment, reward,
boolan
paid
daily wage; price,
value; share of meal
can
talk, chat, conversation, canaan
told, recounted
story, sermon
268 ADJECTIVES
ɔib
writing, letter; painting ɔiban
written, painted
chek
footstep, footprint,
chekaan
trampled, trodden
track (animal)
kak
fire, open flame;
kakan
roasted
smallpox, pox in
general; anger,
rage, fury
ku
God
kuyaan
consecrated, blessed
muk
strength; patience,
mukaan
firm; suffered, endured through
suffering, necessity
suffering; permitted,tolerated;
feigned, pretended
nic
rose, flower
nican
blooming
pib
pit oven
piban
baked in pit oven
uooh
character, letter
uoohan
written
xay
crossroads,
xayan
forked (branch of tree, road)
intersection;
forked pole, branch
Only two of them have cognates (ɔib and muk) among the four examples of such participles in Modern
Yucatec:
(47)
Nominal
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
ȼ’íib’
writing
ȼ’íib’áʔan
written
káʔan
sky, height
káʔanháʔan
haughty
mùuk’
strength
múʔuk’áʔan
strong, thick
péek
motion
péekáʔan
quickly
It is instructive to compare the derivation of participles directly from nominal roots with those derived
from transitive stems derived from such roots:
(48)
Nominal
Transitive
Root
Participle
Stem
Participle
men menaan
mentah mentahan
‘occupation’
‘prepared, arranged,
‘to do, make’
‘made, prepared’
embellished,
decorated, adorned’
taab taaban
taabtah taabtaan
‘salt’
‘salty, salted’
‘to salt’
‘salty, salted’
The participles derived from transitivized stems retain the denominal suffix, -t, whereas the participles
derived directly from nominal roots do not have such a suffix. The same is true of participles derived from
causative stems derived from intransitive roots:
ADJECTIVES
269
(49)
Intransitive
Causative
Root
Participle
Stem
Participle
káah kahan
kahçah kahçahan
‘to remember’ ‘memorized; sensed,
‘to remember,
‘inspired’
noticed, realized’
memorize’
man manaan
maneçah maneçan
‘to pass by,
‘passed’
‘to pass, transfer, ‘passed’
move’
transport’
And participles derived from causative stems derived from adjectival roots retain the causative suffixes,
-cin/-cun:
(50) Adjectival
Causative
Root
Stem
Participle
cooh coohcinah coohcinaan
‘precious, valuable’
‘to value, price, appraise,
‘valued, appraised, exaggerated’
augment, exaggerate’
çac çaccunah çaccunaan
‘white, false’
‘to bleach’
‘bleached’
noh nohcinah nohcinan
‘right-handed; principal,
‘to enlarge, exaggerate,
‘exaggerated, magnified, exalted,
great’
esteem, praise’
praised’
In other words, the derivation of participles from adjectival and nominal roots does not require an interme-
diate derivation from a transitive stem.
3.2. PARTICIPLES MARKED BY -BIL. The Calepino de Motul contains numerous examples of participles de-
rived from transitive roots with -bil, 65 of which have counterparts marked by -(a)an. In most cases, the
glosses of the participial pairs in -bil and -(a)an are virtually identical, as can be seen in the following pairs
of examples:
(51) Transitive
-(a)an
-bil
Root
Participle
Participle
tzah
tzahaan tzahbil
‘to fry’
‘fried’
‘fried’
chac
chacaan chacbil
‘to boil in water or other liquid’ ‘boiled’
‘cooked, boiled’
haɔ
haɔaan
haɔbil
‘to whip, discipline; clear
‘wounded, whipped,
‘wounded, whipped, cudgelled’
/bush/’
cudgelled’
270 ADJECTIVES
yotħ
yotħaan
yotħbil
‘to massage, handle,
‘massaged, handled,
‘massaged, handled, touched, felt’
touch, feel’
touched, felt’
kat
kaatan katbil
‘to ask, request, inquire,
‘requested, asked’
‘requested’
investigate, interrogate’
kel
kelaan kelbil
‘to toast, roast’
‘toasted, roasted’
‘toasted, roasted’
mux
muxaan muxbil
‘to destroy, liquidate; grind
‘ground up, destroyed,
‘ground up’
up, crush /dry things/’
consumed’
pay
payan paybil
‘to call, summon; provoke,
‘summoned’
‘called, summoned’
incite’
ppiz
ppizaan ppizbil
‘to measure, weigh’
‘measured, weighed’
‘measured, weighed, compared’
tic
ticaan ticbil
‘to undo, come undone;
‘undone, unravelled,
‘undone, unravelled, opened’
open /letter/’
opened’
Obviously, the glosses of these pairs are not useful for identifying any functional differences between the
two suffixes. For this purpose, it is necessary to examine the use of the two kinds of participles in clauses.
Fortunately, folio 239v of the Calepino de Motul (Ciudad Real 1600?) has two sets of examples that contrast
the functions of kaatan and katbil in context:
(52a) kaatan ti cuchi
‘having been requested earlier’
(52b) katbil t u hoppol v kati
‘it was necessary for it to be requested first’
(52c) kaatan v chij
‘it was asked’
(52d) katbil v chij v kati
‘it is necessary that it be asked’
(52e) kaatan v tħan
‘it was asked’
(52f) katbil v tħan v kati
‘it is necessary that it be asked’
ADJECTIVES 271
From them we can infer that -bil served as a future passive participial suffix in some contexts, contrasting
in this respect with the perfect passive meaning of -(a)an in related contexts.
This use of -bil can also be documented in other Colonial sources:
(53a) ley tun Aguar.e lae c u tuchitic hotzuc conbil
‘this rum then, he sends it to Tihosuco to be sold’ (HB784C-213A-B)
(53b) lay pome tħa(b)bil elel v cah
‘this incense to be set on fire, it will burn’ (Gordon 1913:36)
(53c) mehene ca xic chucbil v balamil actun t a menel
‘son, go for the jaguar of the cave to be caught by you
v ciilte yn hanal yan uol yn hantante balam
to flavor my food; I have a desire to eat jaguar’ (Gordon 1913:39)
The future meaning of tħa(b)bil in (53b) contrasts with the present meaning of tħaban in (54a):
(54a) tħaban u puccikal t u hunal
‘the heart is on fire alone’ (Gordon 1913:47)
The present perfect meaning of -(a)an is documented in (54b):
(54b) lay ahauob tzolanob lae
‘these rulers who have been set in order’ (Gordon 1913:71)
A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Page 45