SIL Electronic Working Papers
SILEWP 2008-002
- Author:
Cheryl A. Black
Title: Number marking innovations in Zapotec
Language: Santa Maria Quiegolani Zapoteco, Isthmus Zapotec, Yatzachi Zapotec
Country: Mexico
Subjects: numbers
Abstract:
Paper: PDF (538 Kb, 31 pages)In Colonial Zapotec, only quantifiers were used to mark number on nominals (if it was marked at all), and all Zapotec languages still allow this normal quantifier construction. In addition, there were plural forms of the pronouns. Since that time, four types of innovations have emerged. The first three include: a plural proclitic or plural demonstrative with nominals, a verbal prefix which pluralizes the subject, and floating of the plural clitic to directly follow the verb. None of those innovations appear in the southern group of Zapotec languages. Instead, a more exotic and elaborate quantifier construction is used. The full distribution of this special number marking construction is analyzed and shown to have similar characteristics, both semantically and syntactically, to the Plural Pronoun Construction used in other languages.
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