Tense and Time

Introduction

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So far, we have been restricted to talking about the present moment or statements that are generally true. In this lesson, we will learn about how to discuss the past and the future in MacZ as well.

History

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Tense

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As in English, expressions of time are not only given by words like naaya 'yesterday' and gushee 'tomorrow', but it is also reflected by tenses on verbs. Thus in English, the past tense is generally marked by the suffix –ed while the future is indicated by a separate, auxiliary verb will. In MacZ, tense is instead marked with a prefix.

As you may have noticed, most of the verbs we have encountered in MacZ begin with an r and often with ru. That's because the r and/or ru represent present tense prefixes, as in the sentence below (the prefix is underlined):

1. Rudiia benne'ni tu libru.
'This person is writing a book.'

To form the past or future tense of the verb, the prefix, ru-, is removed, revealing the root of the verb, -diia 'write' in this case. (Unlike English, verb roots in MacZ can almost never appear by themselves, but must almost always contain a tense prefix.) Then, to form the past and future tenses, different prefixes are added to the root.

For verbs with a ru- present tense form, the past tense is formed with the prefix be-:

2. Beudiia benne'ni tu libru.
'This person wrote a book.'

And the future tense of such verbs is formed by the prefix gu-:

3. Gudiia benne'ni tu libru.
'This person will write a book.'

This is how the past and future are formed for any verb with a ru- present tense:

4. Beya'aya' naaya.
'I danced yesterday.'

5. Ruya'aya' na'a.
'I'm dancing now.'

6. Guya'aya' gushee.
'I will dance tomorrow.'

7. begoo 'fed' betti' 'sold'
rugoo 'feeds, is feeding' rutti' 'sells, is selling'
gogoo 'will feed' gutti' 'will sell'

begwiia' 'watched' bedibiisi 'dried'
rugwiia' 'watches, is watching' rudibiisi' 'dries, is drying'
gugwiia' 'will watch' gudibiisi 'will dry'

bellia 'kicked' beshiisi' 'smiled'
rullia 'kicks, is kicking' rushiisi' 'smiles, is smiling'
gullia 'will kick' gushiisi' 'will smile'

Often, the prefix is the stressed syllable in the word. When the stressed prefix is followed by a single consonant, the vowel of the prefix is slightly lengthened. We indicate this by writing the prefixes as bee-/ruu-/guu-, as in the following words:

8. beeni 'made' beeshia' 'barked'
ruuni 'makes, is making' ruushia' 'barks, is barking'
guuni 'will make' guushia' 'will bark'

These aren't irregular; these merely represent a spelling convention.

There is one slight irregularity found with the verb rulla 'sing, read'. Instead of taking be- in the past, it takes bi-:

9. billa 'sang, read'
rulla 'sings, is singing, reads, is reading'
gulla 'will sing, will read'

Many of our verbs begin with an r in the present tense, but not ru-. This is because there are different classes in MacZ—around eight in fact. This is similar to Spanish which has three classes of verbs: -ar verbs, -er verbs and –ir verbs. The verbs in Spanish take different suffix forms depending on the ending of the verb. In MacZ, verbs take different prefixes depending on the beginning of the verb.

Another verb class is represented by the verbs roo 'eat' and ra'athi 'sleep'. In these verbs, the present tense prefix is represented solely by the r-:

10. Rooya' etta na'a.
'I'm eating tortillas now.'

To form the past tense, the r- is removed and replaced with gut-:

11. Gutooya' etta nayaa.
'I ate tortillas yesterday.'

And in the future, the prefix g- is added:

12. Gooya' etta gushee.
'I will eat tortillas tomorrow.'

These are summarized below:

13. gutoo 'ate' guta'athi 'slept'
roo 'eats, is eating' ra'athi 'sleeps'
goo 'will eat' ga'athi 'will sleep'

Two verbs with similar, though not identical, prefixes are the verbs ro'o 'buy' and rii 'wash':

14. guyo'o 'bought' gutii 'washed'
ro'o 'buys, is buying' rii 'washes, is washing'
go'o 'will buy' quii 'will wash'

Ro'o has a slightly different past tense; instead of taking gut- as the prefix, it has guy-: guyo'o 'bought'. Rii has the expected past and present forms, but becomes quii in the future tense.

15. Bediia benne'ni tu libru.
'This person wrote a book.'

Vocabulary

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Practice Exercises

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Translate the following sentences into Zapotec:
1. Those men are drying corn.

2. This child doesn't eat potatoes.

3. Why is the dog barking?

4. Are you giving the old monkey pulque to drink?

5. When I'm dancing with this young woman, you don't smile.

Translate the following sentences into English:
1. Rudiia benne'ni tu libru sheeni.

2. Loochi rutti' beyùú'nà' ttzii summi, attianna ro'o niulanà' tu vestidu cuubi laani belliuá.

3. ¿Nuuni ruuni ca juguete joscuni?

4. Abii ri'ya miishinà' niisi'.

5. ¿Baroolù' ca etta etthiaá loo loonaá?

Answer the following Zapotec questions with a complete sentence in Zapotec:
1. ¿Nuuni roo lagoonà'?

2. ¿Biini rugwi'yalù' miishi etthianà'?

3. ¿Biini ro'o ca niulanà'?

4. ¿Nuuni rugoo ca bia'ni?

5. ¿Barduu binni yattzini?

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