| Personal Pronouns. | Possessives. | Reciprocals. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ten, en, | I | In, u, | Mine. | Inba, | Myself. |
| Tech, ech, | Thou. | A, au, | Thine. | Aba, | Thyself. |
| Lay, laylo, lo, | He, that. | U, i, | His, of that. | Uba, | Himself. |
| Toon, on, | We. | Ca, | Ours. | Caba, | Ourselves. |
| Teex, ex, | You. | Aex, auex, | Yours. | Abaex, | Yourselves. |
| Loob, ob, | They, those. | Uob, yob, | Of those. | Ubaob, | Themselves. |
The verb has four conjugations and that of the auxiliary teni, to be, the present tense of which is the same as the personal pronouns given in the left hand column, Ten, Tech, etc. The other cases are as follows: Imperfect, Ten cuchi; Perfect, Ten hi; Pluperfect, Ten hi-ilicuchi; Future, Bin ten-ac; Future perfect, Ten hi-ili coshom; Imperative, Ten-ac; Subjunctive present, Ten-ac en; Imperfect, Hi ten-ac.
The verb Nacal, to ascend, of the first conjugation, is inflected as follows:
Present Indicative.
Singular, 1st per., Nacal in cah; 2d per., Nacal a cah; 3d per., Nacal u cah.
Plural, 1st per., Nacal ca cah; 2d per., Nacal a-cah-ex; 3d per., Nacal-u-cah-ob.
The Imperfect, Nacal in cah-cuchi; Perfect, Nac-en; Pluperfect, Nacen ili cuchi; Future, Bin nacac-en; Future perfect, Nacen ili-cuchom; Imperative, Nacen.
The Lord’s Prayer in Maya.
Cayum
Our Father ianeeh
who art ti
in càannob
Heaven cilichthantabac
blessed be akaba
Thy name; tac a
it may come ahaulil
Thy kingdom c’
us okol.
over. Mencahac
Be done a
Thine nolah
will uai
as ti
on luum
earth bai
as ti
in caanè.
heaven. Zanzamal
Daily uah
bread ca
us azotoon
give heleae
to-day caazaatez
us forgive c’
our ziipil
sins he bik
as c’
we zaatzic
forgive uziipil
their sins ahziipiloobtoone,
to sinners, ma ix
not also appatic
let c’
us lubul
fall ti
in tuntah
temptation caatocoon
us deliver ti
from ob.[720]
evil.
In the state of Oajaca and occupying the western portion of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in a position intermediate between the Maya on the one hand and the Nahua on the other, is found the ancient family of languages known as the Mizteco-Zapotec, the various dialects of which are spoken to this day by the natives occupying those regions. No tradition throws any light on the origin of this group, nor do any affiliations in vocabulary or grammmatical structure seem to exist between them and any other family, American or foreign. The Miztec language is exceedingly difficult to acquire, being characterized by words of extraordinary length. The Zapotec on the contrary, with its several dialects, is elegant, sonorous, and less difficult.[721]