Appendix A: Master paradigm tables

These appendices gather in one place the tables, definitions, word lists and source texts that the chapters introduce one at a time. They are meant to be kept open while you read or write. Every Kaqchikel form here follows the conventions of the book: ALMG orthography, Set A (ergative) and Set B (absolutive) pronoun sets, and the aspect labels incompletive (present), completive (past), potential (future) and imperative.

A.1 The two pronoun sets#

Set B (absolutive). Marks the subject of an intransitive verb, the object of a transitive verb, and the subject of a non-verbal predicate (noun, adjective, positional, k'o).

Examples: yib'e "I go", yinel "I leave", in tijonel "I am a teacher", öj k'o "we are here", e nima'q "they are big".

Set A (ergative). Marks the subject of a transitive verb and the possessor of a noun.

Examples: nutz'i' "my dog", wochoch "my house", ninb'än "I do it", xinlöq' "I bought it", ninwajo' "I want it", xutij "he ate it", xrak'axaj "she heard it", nrajo' "she wants it", kochoch "their house".

A.2 Aspect and mood prefixes#

Epenthetic i: the written standard inserts i between n-/xt-/t- and a consonant-initial stem (niwär, xtib'e, tib'e), and between xt-/t- and the plural Set A markers qa-/ki- (xtiqab'än, tiqab'ana', tikitzu'). Before a bare stem the i is sometimes left unwritten (nwär beside niwär), but after xt- and t- it is not optional before qa- and ki-: write xtiqab'än, never *xtqab'än (Chapter 12).

A.3 Intransitive verbs in the four aspects#

-b'e "go" (consonant-initial, glottal-final)

-wär "sleep" (consonant-initial, lax vowel)

-el "leave, go out" (vowel-initial)

A.4 Transitive verbs in the four aspects (third person singular object)#

-tz'ët "see, look at" (root transitive, CVC, lax vowel; imperative adds -a')

-kanoj "look for" (derived transitive in -Vj; no imperative suffix)

-ya' "give, put" (glottal-final root; tense vowel throughout; no imperative suffix)

Vowel-initial stems take the prevocalic Set A: ninwajo', nawajo', nrajo', nqajo', niwajo', nkajo' "I want it, you want it..."; completive xinwajo', xawajo', xrajo', xqajo', xiwajo', xkajo'.

Imperative vowel harmony (root transitives). ä > a' (tab'ana' "do it"), e/ë/i/ï > a' (tatz'eta' "look at it", tatija' "eat it", tawila' "find it"), o/ö > o' (taloq'o' "buy it", tamolo' "gather it"), u/ü > u' (tak'utu' "show it", tachupu' "put it out"). Glottal-final roots add nothing (taya', tatzu', tato', tasu').

A.5 Subject and object combined: -tz'ët in the incompletive#

Rows give the subject (Set A), columns the object (Set B). Cells where subject and object are the same person use the reflexive -i' instead (nintz'ët wi' "I see myself").

In the completive replace y- with x- and n- with x- (xatintz'ët "I saw you", xutz'ët "he saw it", xe'intz'ët "I saw them"); in the potential use xk-/xt- (xkatintz'ët, xtutz'ët); in the imperative use k-/t- (kinatz'eta' "look at me", ke'atz'eta' "look at them", kojato' "help us").

A.6 Voice and the perfect#

Rules: root transitives tense the vowel for the passive (xub'än > xb'an) and add -on for the antipassive and perfect; derived -Vj verbs take -Vx with a lax vowel for the passive and -Vn for the antipassive and perfect. The agent of a passive is introduced with roma/-oma; the patient of an antipassive with richin/-ichin. The perfect carries Set A and no aspect prefix; its intransitive counterpart is -inäq/-näq: b'enäq "gone", petenäq "come", kosinäq (kosnäq) "tired", kaminäq "dead", sachinäq "lost", nojnäq "full", alaxnäq "born", etz'aninäq "having played", ik'owinäq "passed".

A.7 Positional derivations#

Roots ending in l or r take -an instead of a lax vowel + l for the stative (xulan, b'olan, tzalan, tz'iran "deserted"). Subjects of statives are the free Set B words: in tz'uyül, at pa'äl, öj kotz'öl, e jotöl.

A.8 Relational nouns#

When does chi fuse with what follows? Whenever the possessive prefix is a bare consonant or begins with a vowel, so that preposition and prefix make one easy syllable: chi + w- > chw- (chwe, chwij), chi + aw- > chaw- (chawe, chawäch), chi + r- > chr- (chre, chrij), chi + q- > chq- (chqe), and chi + ru- > chu- with the r dropped (chuwäch, chuxe', chupam, chuchi', chukojol). Before the full syllables nu-, qa-, i- and ki- it stays a separate word: chi nuwäch, chi qawäch, chi iwäch, chi kiwäch. The fusable forms also circulate written apart (chi re, chi rij, chi ruxe'); both spellings are correct, so be consistent within a text (Chapter 21).

A.9 Numbers#

Twenty-one to forty (modern count: completed twenty first, then the digits)

The older pan-Mayan count names the twenty being filled: jun rukak'al "one of the second twenty" = 21, kajlajuj rukak'al = 34, wo'o' roxk'al = 45.

The twenties and beyond

Ordinals: nab'ey first, ruka'n second, rox third, rukaj fourth, ro' fifth, ruwaq sixth, ruwuq seventh, ruwaqxaq eighth, rub'elej ninth, rulaj tenth, rujulaj eleventh; k'isib'äl last.

Distributives: jujun one by one (also "each, some"), kaka' two by two, oxox (also ox'öx) by threes, kajkäj by fours, wotäq by fives, waqtäq by sixes, wuqtäq, waqxaqtäq, b'elejtäq, lajtäq.

Times: jumul once, kamul twice, oxmul three times; ¿jampe mul? how many times?

A.10 Time words#