LEALAO CHINANTEC

Sources of the data

Rupp, James and Nadine Rupp. 1996. Diccionario chinanteco de San Juan Lealao, Oaxaca. [Vocabularios y Diccionarios Indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves” 35] Mexico DF: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. Available online.

Palancar, Enrique L. 2014. A mixed system of agreement in the suffix classes of Lealao Chinantec. Morphology. Springer (DOI 10.1007/s11525-014-9252-x). Available online.

Verbal inflection

The database provides the transitivity value of verbs, according to the information provided in the source material.

intr

intransitive

tr

transitive

dtr

ditransitive (besides typical ditransitives, it also includes verbs that take an instrument as a secondary object)

In the Chinantecan languages, there are two main types of verbs: stative verbs and dynamic verbs (also called ‘active verbs’). The database only includes information about dynamic verbs because stative verbs remain poorly understood to date.

NOTE: There is no convenient non-finite form to use as a citation form. Consequently, entries in the dictionary are given in the Future with the additional complication that they can be given in the 3rd person (in the case of inanimate intransitive verbs) or in the the 1pl (in all other cases).

NOTE: There is insufficient information in the dictionary for us to feel confident in the reconstruction of the paradigm for each verb. Consequently, only grammatical information is given in the database.

Dynamic verbs

Dynamic verbs fall into two types: (i) simple verbs, which consist of a mono-morphemic and (mostly) monosyllabic root:

-jmøø (tr) ‘dig’; -ma (intr) ‘disappear’; -na (intr) ‘lack’, etc.

and (ii) bi-partite verbs (also called ‘binomial’), which originate from old V+V compounds, and are thus disyllabic and consist of two morphs. The information in the source data is insufficient to reconstruct the paradigm of a bi-partite verb with absolute certainty.

-dxa+he (intr) ‘be one's turn’; -ya+niuuh (intr) ‘overhear gossip’; -bi-dxa (tr) ‘finish’; etc.

The inflection of dynamic verbs can be very complex. Verbs have three main inflected stems:

• Incompletive stem (also called present or progressive stem)
• Completive stem (also called past stem)
• Irrealis stem (also called future or intentive stem)

Such inflected stems are built on a segmental base to which tone and pharyngealization (the so-called ballistic stress, represented by an acute accent) are added.

Inflected stems also convey information about grammatical person; the maximal person distinction involves four persons: 1SG, 1PL, 2 and 3. To these inflected stems, prefixes are added to build the different tenses, i.e. the present, perfect, future, etc.

	Three grammatical tenses
hi²tiuun²a² (tr) ‘spill’	PRS	PRF	FUT
1SG	tuun⁴-y	ma³-tuún⁴-y	hi²-tuun⁴²-y
2SG	tuun³-y	ma³-tiuún¹-y	hi²-tuun³-y
3SG	tiuun⁴-Ø	ma³-tiuún³-Ø	hí⁴-tiuún⁴-Ø
1PL.INCL	tiuun⁴²-a²	ma³-tiuun²-a²	hi²-tiuun²-a²

INFL STEMS
INCPL	CPL	IRR
tuun⁴	tuún⁴	tuun⁴²
tuun³	tiuún¹	tuun³
tiuun⁴	tiuún³	tiuún⁴
tiuun⁴²	tiuun²	tiuun²

Animacy pairs

Verbs in Chinantec agree in animacy with the S or the O argument. Every entry in the database gives information about this animacy value:

an O

animate O

inan O

inanimate O

inan S

inanimate S

an S

animate S

A verb with two agreement forms (animate vs. inanimate) is presented in the source data as two different lexical entries. We have identified such entries as pairs, and indicate them in the database.

hi²liah²a² (tr, INAN O)
‘push something’

	INCPL	CPL	IRR
1SG › INAN	liah⁴	liáh⁴	liah⁴²
2SG › INAN	liah³	liáh¹	liah³
3SG › INAN	liah⁴	liáh³	liáh⁴
1PL › INAN	liah⁴²	liah²	liah²

hi²liah⁴²a² (tr, AN O)
‘push something (animate)’

	INCPL	CPL	IRR
1SG › AN	liah³²	liáh²	liah¹
2SG › AN	liah⁴	liah⁴²	liah⁴
3SG › AN	liah³²	liáh²	liáh²
1PL › AN	liah³²	liah⁴²	liah⁴²

Conjugation patterns – our analysis

We classify verbs in Chinantec in a different way. We assume that the marking for 3rd person is independent from the marking of other persons. Notice that hi²tiuun²a² (tr) ‘spill’ and hí⁴tǿn⁴a² (tr) ‘receive’, on the one hand, and hi²tiuuh⁴²a² (tr) ‘stop’ and hi²tu¹a² (tr) ‘drop’, on the other, have the same marking for 3rd person, while hi²tiuuh⁴²a² (tr) ‘stop’ and hí⁴cueeh⁴²a² (tr) ‘leave’ have the same marking for all other persons. Hence for us, verbs belong to two classes independently.

	Class of 3rd person	Class of other persons
hi²tiuun²a² (tr) 'spill'	g	7
hí⁴tǿn⁴a² (tr) 'receive'	g	69
hi²tiuuh⁴²a² (tr) 'stop'	l	5
hí⁴cueeh⁴²a² (tr) 'leave'	Invariable	5
hi²tu¹a² (tr) 'drop'	l	10

Classes for 3rd person:

Some verbs are invariable, and for these we give their lexical tone value, e.g. /1/.

Class	3 INCPL	3 CPL	3 IRR
a	#1	#1	42
b	3	4	#2
c	#3	#4	#3
d	#3	#3	42
e	4	#1	#1
f	4	3	3
g	4	#3	#4
h	4	32	4
i	4	#42	#42
j	32	32	1
k	32	4	#2
l	32	#2	#2
m	32	#4	#4
n	#3	#3	#4
o	3	#3	#4
p	3	#3	3
q	4	#4	#4
r	4	#4	4
s	32	32	#3
t	32	2	2
Invariable	1
	#1
	2
	#2
	3
	#3
	32
	4
	#4
	42

Classes for other persons:

Some verbs are invariable, and for these we give their lexical tone value, e.g. /1/.

Class	1SG INCPL	1SG CPL	1SG IRR	2 INCPL	2 CPL	2 IRR	1PL INCPL	1PL CPL	1PL IRR
1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1
2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
3	42	42	42	42	42	42	42	42	42
4	32	#2	1	32	#2	1	32	#2	1
5	42	42	42	42	42	42	32	42	42
6	42	42	42	4	4	4	42	42	42
7	4	#4	42	3	#1	3	42	2	2
8	42	42	42	#1	#1	#1	2	2	2
9	32	#2	1	#3	42	#3	32	42	42
10	#4	#4	#4	32	#2	1	32	1	1
11	#3	#4	#3	#3	#4	#3	#3	#4	#3
12	42	42	42	3	3	3	32	32	32
13	#4	#4	#4	#4	#4	#4	42	42	42
14	#4	#4	#4	#4	42	#4	32	42	42
15	#4	#4	#4	#4	#4	#4	32	42	42
16	4	#4	42	3	3	3	32	2	2
17	32	#2	1	#3	#2	#3	32	42	42
18	42	42	42	4	4	4	32	32	32
19	#4	#4	#4	32	#1	1	32	2	2
20	4	#4	42	3	#3	3	32	2	2
21	#4	#4	#4	32	#1	1	32	2	2
22	4	4	4	3	3	3	32	32	32
23	#4	#4	#4	32	#1	1	4	2	2
24	32	#2	1	#4	#4	#4	32	42	42
25	32	#2	1	4	#4	#4	42	42	42
26	32	32	1	32	32	1	32	32	1
27	4	4	4	#1	#1	#1	2	2	2
28	42	42	42	4	#4	#4	42	#4	#4
29	#4	#4	#4	32	#2	1	32	42	42
30	42	42	1	42	42	42	42	42	42
31	32	#2	1	3	3	3	32	2	2
32	32	#2	1	#3	#2	#3	32	1	1
33	4	4	4	3	3	3	42	42	42
34	4	#4	4	4	#4	4	42	#4	42
35	42	#4	42	4	#4	4	#4	#4	42
36	4	#4	42	#3	#3	#3	42	42	42
37	4	#4	42	#1	#1	#1	42	2	2
38	#4	#4	#4	#2	#2	#2	#4	#4	#4
39	#4	#4	#4	32	#2	#2	32	32	32
40	#4	#4	#4	32	#2	1	42	1	1
41	42	42	4	42	42	42	42	42	42
42	42	#2	1	#1	#3	#3	2	2	2
43	32	32	42	4	32	4	42	32	42
44	4	#4	42	#3	#3	#3	2	2	2
45	4	#4	42	#3	#3	#3	32	2	2
46	4	#2	1	#3	#1	#3	#3	2	2
47	4	#4	42	#1	#1	#1	42	2	2
48	4	#4	42	#1	#1	#1	2	2	2
49	32	#2	1	#3	#1	#3	#3	2	2
50	32	#2	1	32	#1	1	#4	2	2
51	42	#2	1	42	#2	1	42	42	42
52	42	#2	1	42	4	4	42	42	42
53	4	4	4	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1
54	#4	#4	#4	32	#1	1	32	2	2
55	#4	#4	#4	32	#2	1	32	2	2
56	#4	#4	#4	#1	#1	#1	2	2	2
57	#4	#4	#4	2	2	2	32	32	32
58	42	#4	42	#1	3	3	2	2	2
59	42	42	42	3	3	3	3	3	3
60	42	42	42	#1	#1	#1	2	2	2
61	4	#4	42	3	#2	3	2	2	2
62	32	#2	1	4	4	4	32	42	42
63	42	42	42	32	#1	1	32	42	42
64	32	#2	1	#3	#1	#3	32	1	1
65	#4	#4	#4	3	3	3	32	32	32
66	42	4	4	4	4	4	32	4	4
67	4	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1
68	#4	#2	1	32	4	4	32	42	42
69	42	#3	4	4	#3	#4	42	#3	#4
l	32	#2	2	32	#2	#2	32	#2	#2
q	4	#4	4	4	#4	#4	4	#4	#4
Invariable	1
	#1
	2
	#2
	3
	#3
	32
	4
	#4
	42

Inflectional classes based on suffixes

Apart from prosodic classes, Lealao Chinantec has suffix classes indicating the person of the subject and at times animacy of the absolutive argument.

Examples of the two most frequent classes are presented below:

	ʔi²ñuu²a² (tr)	ʔi²heé²a² (tr)
	‘tie’	‘run (animate) over’
1SG	hi²-ñuu-y⁴²	hi²-heé²-á⁴
2SG	hi²-ñuu-y³	hi²-heé²-u³
3SG	hí⁴-ñuú⁴-Ø	hí⁴-heé-y²
1PL.INCL	hi²-ñuu²-a²	hi²-heé²-a²
1PL.EXCL	hi²-ñuu²-ah¹	hi²-heé²-ah¹
2PL	hi²-ñuu³-ah³	hi²-heé²-ah³
3PL	hí⁴-daʔ²-ñuú⁴-Ø	hí⁴-daʔ²-heé-y²

The relevant marking for such classes are the sets of suffixes for the singular persons. We have identified six different classes. Entries in the database are given the relevant class membership notation (except for verbs which can only inflect for the 3rd person, for which the suffix they select is given).

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1SG	-y	-á⁴	-á⁴	-á⁴	-y	-y
2SG	-y	-u³	-u³	-y	-u³	-u³
3SG	-Ø	-Ø	-y	-Ø	-Ø	-h