The temporal distinction between -(a)an and -bil is not as evident when the participles formed by suf-
fixing them to transitive roots serve as modifiers for nouns, as in xotaan tħan ‘interrupted speech’ and
çippan abal ‘ripe plums,’ compared with yeybil uinic ‘chosen man’ and muxbil taab ‘ground salt.’ The use of
-bil participles as modifiers is illustrated in context in the following example:
(55)
hex kin bin katabac tiob lae y ahau tzahbil hee
‘and this sun here that will be requested of them: a huge fried egg’ (Gordon 1913:29)
The same indeterminacy is evident in the glosses for participles derived from root transitives with -b’il
in Modern Yucatec (V. Bricker et al. 1998:378–379):
(56)
Transitive
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
ʔuk’
to drink
ʔuk’b’il
liquified
b’ah
to nail
b’ahb’il
nailed
ȼah
to fry
ȼahb’il
fried, pureed
ȼ’eh
to chip, crack /seeds/
ȼ’ehb’il
cracked
čak
to boil, parboil
čakb’il
boiled
koȼ’
to roll up, curl up,
koȼ’b’il
rolled up
coil up
puk’
to dilute, dissolve, mix puk’b’il
dissolved
272 ADJECTIVES
toʔ
to wrap
tóʔob’il
wrapped
t’an
to speak, call, address
t’anb’il
spoken
When such participles are used as modifiers in Modern Yucatec, they have no temporal implications:
(57a) k’ab’éet a ȼiȼ=háʔatik y éetel t’anb’il haʔ
‘you must sprinkle them with blessed water’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:289)
(57b) t u mak’ah yáač’b’il wàah
‘he ate porridge [literally, crushed tortillas]’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:178)
(57c) héʔel e čakb’il wàak(a)šaʔ
‘here is this boiled beef’ (V. Bricker 1981a:244, line 891)
In other contexts, such participles refer to the future in Modern Yucatec:
(58a) pìinpim wàah k u b’èetáʔaleʔ u tíʔáʔal ȼ’áahb’il tíʔóʔob’
‘the thick tortillas that were made in order to be given to them’ (SOT971B:14)
(58b) wáah k’učukóʔob’ b’eyaʔ áay dyos míiyoh
‘if they arrived like this, oh my God,
tóokb’il u mèentb’il
it would be burned’ (V. Bricker 1981a:228, lines 44–46)
(58c) múʔ páahtal u b’in č’áʔab’il u hèel
‘they were not able to go for replacements to be taken’ (V. Bricker 1981a:233, line 393)
Participles could also be derived from intransitive verbs with -bil in Colonial Yucatec, but in such parti-
ciples a -Vl suffix was interposed between the intransitive root and -bil, which was not the case with parti-
ciples derived from intransitive roots with -(a)an:
(59)
Intransitive
-(a)an
-bil
Root
Participle
Participle
em
emaan emelbil
‘descend, come down’
‘descended, downhill’
‘descendible’
kaah
kahan kahalbil
‘remember’
‘memorized, sensed,
‘from time to time’
noticed, realized’
naac
nacan nacalbil
‘rise, climb’
‘raised’
‘climbing, rising’
oc
ocaan ocolbil3
‘enter’
‘entered, begun’
‘accessible’
ADJECTIVES 273
It is not clear whether the -bil participle represented a secondary derivation based on the -Vl participle
derived from intransitive roots (see 3.3. below) or on the imperfective stem of the intransitive verb, which
was also marked by -Vl (emel, káahal, náacal, ocol).
Unlike intransitive participles marked by -bil, participles could be derived from nouns by suffixing -bil
to the nominal root itself:
(60)
Nominal
-bil
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
bool
payment, reward, daily boolbil
to be paid
wage; price, value
tzen
person raised by
tzenbil
reared, supported, fed, nourished
another
can
talk, chat, conversation, canbil
recounted, told
story, sermon
yam
interval, distance,
yambil
intermittently, sporadically, from
concavity between
time to time
two things
kak
fire, open flame
kakbil
roasted
kool
thick sauce or gravy
koolbil
stewed
made of sliced bread
or corn dough
ol
heart (non-corporeal);
olbil
voluntary
mind, will, desire,
energy, spirit
pib
pit oven
pibbil
baked in pit oven
taab
salt
tabbil
salted [so that it will not spoil]
Three of these participles — boolbil, canbil, and kakbil — have counterparts with -(a)an and similar or iden-
tical meanings (compare with boolaan, canaan, and kakan in [46] above). A contextual example of the use
of kakbil as a modifier appears below:
(61)
y oklal u ɔa ci kakbil bak v hante ɔulob y etel cappitanob t u lacal
‘because he gave well roasted meat to the foreigners to eat and all the captains’ (Gordon 1913:63)
The Hocaba dictionary of Modern Yucatec contains three examples of participles derived from nominal
roots with -b’il (V. Bricker et al. 1998:379):
(62)
Nominal
-bil
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
k’áak’
flame, fire
k’áaʔb’il
broiled
k’óol
thick sauce or gravy
k’óolb’il
sauced
yúʔup’
crumb
yúʔup’b’il
crumbled
The first two sets of examples are cognates of nominal roots and -bil participles derived from them in
Colonial Yucatec (see [60] above). Their use as modifiers of nouns is well documented for Modern Yucatec:
k’áaʔb’il ʔìik ‘broiled chili,’ k’áaʔb’il kàaš ‘broiled chicken,’ k’óolb’il kùuȼ ‘sauced turkey’ (V. Bricker et al.
1998:143, 156).
274 ADJECTIVES
3.3. PARTICIPLES MARKED BY -VL. The two right-hand columns of (35) in Chapter 3 list 26 participles marked
by -Vl in Colonial Yucatec and their glosses. As explained by 2.3.2.1. in that chapter, the vowels in both syl-
and mediopassive stems derived from the same transitive roots with -Vl suffixes, the first syllables of which
were heavy or long. The scribe(s) who compiled the Calepino de Motul noted this contrast in vowel length
or weight and, in almost all cases, specified that the final syllable of the participial examples was stressed,
contrasting in this respect with passive and mediopassive stems, in which the first syllable was stressed.
Over time, the vowel in the first of the two syllables in -Vl participles was lengthened and acquired low
or falling tone; the resulting heavy syllable acquired stress, mimicking the stress pattern of passive and
mediopassive stems (see 2.3.2.2. in Chapter 3). Thus, in Modern Yucatec, -Vl participles differ from -Vl pas-
sives and mediopassives only in tone, falling or low tone contrasting with the high tone in mediopassives
([38] in Chapter 3) and the infixed glottal stop in passives (compare the two right-hand columns in [38] with
the two right-hand columns in [36] in Chapter 3).
The Calepino de Motul contains the following examples of -Vl participles derived from intransitive roots:
(63)
Intransitive
-Vl
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
cim
to die
cimil
dead
el
to burn
elél
burned
man
to pass by, move
manál
healed (wound)
The Hocaba dictionary of Modern Yucatec documents six examples of such participles (V. Bricker et al.
1998:373–374), one of which is a cognate of cimil in (63):
(64)
Intransitive
-Vl
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
kíim
to die
kìimil
dead
kóoh
to arrive
kòohol
arrived
líik’
to rise, ascend
lìik’il
raised
lúub’
to fall
lùub’ul
fallen
máan
to pass by, move
màanal
exceedingly
púuȼ’
to flee, elope
pùuȼ’ul
fugitive
It is noteworthy that the intransitive roots from which such participles are derived have the same shape
as the first syllable of the mediopassive stems that are the source of -Vl participles in (38) in Chapter 3.
The vowel in the intransitive root is long with a high or rising tone, like the vowel in the first syllable of the
mediopassive stem. It contrasts with the vowel in the first syllable of the corresponding participle, whose
tone is low or falling in both cases.
4. PLURALIZATION
The third-person plural suffix, -ob, co-occurred with adjectival as well as verbal and nominal roots and stems
in Colonial Yucatec. This usage is documented in the following examples, the first in an adjectival phrase (ci
ol ‘happy’) and the second with two participles (butħan ‘filled, stuffed’ and calan ‘drunk, intoxicated’):
ADJECTIVES 275
(65a) cijob y ol in mehenob
‘my sons are happy’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 43v)
(65b) he vinicob butħanob ti ci calanobe ma vchac y almah=xicinob bax v tzeecob
‘these men who are full of wine and drunk, they are not capable of giving advice!’ (Ciudad Real
1600?: fol. 302r)
Another example of -ob suffixed to a participle (tzolanob ‘set in order’) can be found in (54b) above.
There is also a collective plural suffix, -tac, that co-occurred only with adjectival roots and adjectival and
participial stems in Colonial Yucatec:
(66)
Adjectival
Collective
Root/Stem
Gloss
Plural
Gloss
ɔanaan
joined, assembled,
ɔanaantac
joined, assembled, piled up
piled up
chauac long
chauactac long
ya
painful, sore; grave,
yatac
serious, grave
serious
kux
painful
kuxtac
feverish, aching
lob
bad, evil
lobtac
evil, bad
mehen small
mehentac small
nuc
fat, thick, bulky
nuctac
thick, fat, bulky (wood, tree,
large tree)
Several examples of their use in context appear below:
(67a) he vinicob lobtac v tħanobe baci a tac=chite v tħanob
‘men whose words are bad prevent you from speaking’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 400r)
(67b) he u ɔacal lae pah taan y limones va ix sisal xiu mehentace
‘here is the remedy: sour ashes and lemons or life plants4 that are small’ (Gordon 1913:81)
(67c) ɔanaantac vinicob ti y otoch ku
‘people are assembled in the church’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 126v)
The cognate of -tac is -tak in Modern Yucatec, where it is suffixed to three adjectival roots, two of which
already have plural meanings (V. Bricker et al. 1998:182, 201):
(68)
Adjectival
Collective
Root/Stem
Gloss
Plural
Gloss
čak
red, pink, orange,
čaktak
red
mehen
small (plural)
mehentak
small (plural)
nùuk
big (plural)
nùuktak
big (plural)
The plural meaning of mehen is attested in two examples in the Hocaba dictionary: mehen pèek’ ‘small
dogs’ and mehen ȼ’ul ‘gleanings’ (V. Bricker et al. 1998:182). It is also documented in a contextual example
from the town of Ebtun, where I lived during the spring of 1979:
276 ADJECTIVES
(69a) b’ey ʔiknal mehen k’éʔenoʔ kim b’isik túun hoʔ
‘thus with piglets there, I took them to Merida’ (EBT979A)
There are also contextual examples of mehentak in Modern Yucatec:
(69b) mehentakóʔon káʔah ʔúuč leloʔ
‘we were small when that happened’ (PEN971:1)
(69c) t u mèen tóʔoneʔ mehentakóʔon káʔah kíim letíʔóʔob’
‘because, as for us, we were small when they died’ (PEN971:6)
Strictly speaking, the -tak suffix is redundant in mehentak because mehen alone has a plural meaning. An
even greater redundancy is apparent in an example of nùuktakóʔob’ ‘they are big,’ which has two plural
suffixes, -tak and -óʔob’, in the Hocaba dictionary (V. Bricker et al. 1998:201), as well as in a text from Sotuta:
(70a) yàan asyendah nùuktakóʔob’ téʔeloʔ
there were large plantations there’ (SOT971B:23)
Another text has an example of nùuktakóʔon, paralleling the examples of mehentakóʔon in (69b–c):
(70b) máahtik tíʔ teneʔ k’aháʔan máʔ nùuktakóʔon b’eyoʔ
‘don’t you see that I am reminded that we were not grown yet’ (CHC971:6)
Reduplicated participles represent another kind of
plural in the sense that they refer to the results of
repeated actions. The Calepino de Motul lists three such participles that were derived from root transitives
and co-occurred with -tac:
(71) Transitive
Reduplicated
Root
Gloss
Participle
Gloss
çut
to return, revolve
çuzu(t)tac
going around
ppin
to set trap with twigs
ppinppintac
set with twigs and tallow (rope trap)
ppuz
to bend, arch
ppuppuztac
bent
Contextual examples of çuzu(t)tac and ppuppuztac appear below:
(72a) çuzutac tzimin y ok cħen
‘revolving horse of the draw-well’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 110r)
(72b) çuzutac Juan chichi na
‘John is going around from house to house’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 110r)
(72c) ppuppuztac u pach Juan
‘John’s back is hunching’ (Ciudad Real 1600?: fol. 394v)
Reduplicated participles are considered further in 2. in Chapter 13.
ADJECTIVES 277
5. ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS
Compounds with adjectival meanings were formed by combining adjectival roots with adjectival, nominal,
and verbal roots and stems in Colonial Yucatec. In the following compounds, mentioned in the Calepino de
Motul, an adjectival root is followed by another adjectival root:
(73) Adjectival
Adjectival
Root
Root
Compound
cich
celem cich=celem
‘good, fine, holy’
‘strong, robust, vigorous’
‘handsome, graceful, elegant’
çac
eek çac=eek
‘white; false’
‘black’
‘brown’
çiz
chacau çiz=chacau
‘cold, cool’
‘hot, warm’
‘lukewarm’
lah cet lah=cet
‘all’
‘equal, even; jointly,
‘equal, even; together’
together’
num
naah num=nah
‘much, excessive’
‘sufficient, full, complete’
‘complete, very full [with food]’
on
kaaz on=kaaz
‘much, many’
‘bad, ugly’
‘loquacious, deceitful’
The Calepino de Motul contains a number of examples of adjectival compounds in which the adjectival root
is followed by a nominal root, of which the following are representative:
A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Page 46