Adelaar Willem, Muysken Pieter. The languages of the Andes
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104 2 The Chibcha Sphere
At the same time, intransitive verbs of motion and position, and transitive verbs of
location may differ lexically according to the number of actors involved or the shape of
the theme. For instance, the intransitive verb gu- indicates ‘to be in motion (of several
people)’, as in:
(127) fac chi-gu-squa
outside 1S.PL-be.in.motion-IA
‘We go outside.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 316)
(128) hui chi-gu-squa
inside 1S.PL-be.in.motion-IA
‘We go inside.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 258)
The same verb can be used in connection with mass actors, such as water:
(129) fac a-gu-squa
outside 3S-be.in.motion-IA
‘It flows out (of water).’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 317)
If there is only one actor the verb mi- is preferred, as in:
(130) hui ze-mi-squa
inside 1S.SG-be.in.motion-IA
‘I go inside’, ‘I enter.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 258)
(131) sua-z guan a-mi-squa
sun-EU hanging 3S-be.in.motion-IA
‘The sun goes up.’ (lit. ‘The sun goes hanging.’)
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 317)
As we saw before, the transitive verb for ‘to put’, ‘to bring in a position’ is b-za-.
However, when the object is plural pquy-ispreferred.
(132) guan ∅∅-b-za-squa
hanging 1S.SG-T-put (singular object)-IA
‘I hang (one).’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 214)
(133) guan z-∅∅-pquy-squa
hanging 1S.SG-T-put (plural object)-IA
‘I hang (several).’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 214)
The examples (127)–(133) also nicely illustrate the use of spatial adverbs in Muisca.
The usual expressions for ‘to sit’ and ‘to lie’ only differ by means of the case suffix of
2.9 The Muisca language 105
their shared complement, hicha ‘earth’. The number of people sitting or lying is relevant
for the choice of the verb.
(134) hicha-n i-zo-ne
earth-L 1S.SG-be (one person)-ST
‘I sit.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 196)
(135) hicha-n chi-bizi-ne
earth-L 1S.PL-be (several persons)-ST
‘We sit.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 196)
(136) hicha-s i-zo-ne
earth-PT 1S.SG-be (one person)-ST
‘I lie (down).’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 171)
Transitive verbs of eating differ according to what is eaten. The following possibilities
are mentioned in the vocabularies (e.g. Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 215–16): b-so- ‘to eat
(any sort of food, in particular leaves and herbs)’; b-gy- ‘to eat (bread, potatoes, roots);
b-ca- ‘to eat (maize, meat, cheese, fruit, biscuits, candies)’; b-gamy- ‘to eat (honey, lard,
salt, sauce)’; b-iohoty- ‘to drink’, ‘to eat (gruel)’, b-gyia- ‘to chew’, ‘to eat (sugar-cane)’.
The Muisca sources contain ample evidence of loan words from Spanish, such as fin
‘wine’ (Spanish vino) and raga ‘dagger’ (Spanish daga). Verbs are incorporated in their
infinitive form in -r, followed by the verb b-quy- ‘to do’.
(137) castigar ma-n-quy-nga
[Spanish castigar ‘to punish’]
punish 2S.SG-PS-do-F
‘You will be punished.’
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 217)
The demonstratives in Muisca appear to be based on a straightforward system en-
coding three degrees of distance sis(y) ‘this’, ys(y) ‘that’, as(y) ‘that (over there)’. The
corresponding local adverbs (implying rest) are sinaca ‘here’, ynaca ‘there’ and anaca
‘over there’. For deictic manner adverbs we find sihic and (h)ysquy ‘thus’, which may
reflect a similar distinction. In addition, there are directional adverbs, si(e) ∼ xi(e) ‘in
this direction’, ysi ‘in that direction’ and asi ‘in that direction (over there)’. However, an
adverb that appears to be semantically opposite to si(e) is ai,which means ‘away from
the speaker’ or ‘forward’, e.g. in ai b-ta- ‘to throw (something) away’ against si b-ta-
‘to throw (something) over here’.
Interrogative pronouns are heterogeneous in form: xie ∼ sie ‘who’, ipqua ‘what’,
epqua-n ‘where (rest)’, epqua-c ‘where (goal)’, fi- ‘how many’, fica ‘how many (of time
units)’, ‘how long ago’, fes ∼ bes ‘which’, ‘when’, hac ‘how’. All must be followed by
an interrogative marker -o/-ua when used interrogatively.
106 2 The Chibcha Sphere
The Muisca numerals reflect a vigesimal system. The ten first units are ata ‘one’,
boza ‘two’, mica ‘three’, muyhyca ‘four’, hyzca ‘five’, ta(a)
50
‘six’, cuhupqua ‘seven’,
suhuza ‘eight’, aca ‘nine’, ubchihica ‘ten’. The list presented here has been compiled
on the basis of Gonz´alez de P´erez (1987) and Quesada Pacheco (1991) in an endeavour
to overcome the gaps and orthographic inconsistencies found in all these sources with
respect to numerals. The numbers from ten to nineteen are formed on the basis of the
root quihicha ‘foot’ followed by the respective unit, e.g. quihicha ata ‘eleven’. The word
for twenty is gue-ta, based on a root gue [we]; forty is gue-boza, sixty is gue-mica, etc.
Lugo mentions two series of ordinal numbers. Units of time can combine with numerals
in order to refer to past units; e.g. zocam ‘year’, zocam-bo-na ‘two years ago’, zoca-
mi-na ‘three years ago’. For days the suffix -na suffices: mi-na ‘day before yesterday’,
muyhyca-na ‘the day before the day before yesterday’, etc. According to the vocabulary
of the National Library grammar it is possible to count back using separate expressions
until twenty days before the moment of speaking.
Kinship terms in Muisca involve distinctions of gender of the referent (e.g. brother
versus sister), gender of the person from whose viewpoint the relationship is consid-
ered (e.g. sibling of man versus sibling of woman), and relative age (e.g. elder versus
younger sibling). There is no distinction between son and daughter, both being called
chuta.Father’s brother and mother’s sister are called father (paba) and mother (guaia),
respectively, but there are separate terms for mother’s brother (gue-cha, lit. ‘house-man’)
and father’s sister (paba-fucha, lit. ‘father-woman’).
2.9.5 A Muisca text
Virtually all Muisca texts known to us belong to the Roman Catholic religious domain.
They can be found as appendices to all three grammars that have been preserved. An
exception to the primacy of religious liturgy are two sonnets that accompany Lugo’s
grammar, extolling his talents as a specialist of the Muisca language. These sonnets
have been analysed and translated by Ostler (1995). A part of the remaining texts have
been published and analysed in Ostler (1999).
As an illustration of Muisca text we will reproduce and analyse the Lord’s Prayer as
given in the catechism accompanying the National Library grammar (Gonz´alez de P´erez
1987: 342; also in Ostler 1999).
50
The vocabulary of the National Library grammar provides an indication that the pronun-
ciation of the word for ‘six’ indeed involved a sequence of two like vowels, as it writes
quihichata ˆa ([kihit
y
ataʔa]) for ‘sixteen’ (Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 240). Lugo has only ta
for ‘six’.
2.9 The Muisca language 107
1. chi-paba guate-quyca-n zon-a
1P.PL-father high-country-L be.there-PR.AG
‘Our Father who art in Heaven,’
The past and present participles of zo(n)- ‘to be there (of one person)’ are both zon-a
(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 107, 109). The part following chi-paba is a relative clause
with a nominalised verb (zon-a).
2. um-hyca a-chie chi-gu-squa
2P.SG-name 3P-glory 1P.PL-say-IA
‘Hallowed be thy name.’
The expression a-chie chi-gu-squa, literally, ‘we say its glory’, is given as a translation
of Spanish reverenciar ‘to hallow’. So the phrase reads: ‘We hallow thy name.’
3. um-quyca chi-muys huca
2P.SG-country 1P.PL-towards come.PA.AG
‘Thy Kingdom come.’
The postposition -muysa (here shortened to -muys) indicates motion towards a person,
indicated by means of a possessive prefix. The form huca is a past participle of hu- ‘to
come’, used as a hortative with a third-person subject. Literally, the text reads: ‘May thy
country come towards us.’
4. um-pquyquy ¸cielo-na quy-n-uca guehesca sinca-nsie a-quy-n-ynga
2P.SG-will heaven-L do-NT-PR.AG like here-out.of 3S-do-NT-F
‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’
The verb is quy-n- ‘to happen’, ‘to be done’, ‘to be’ (as in sua-z a-quy-n-suca ‘it is
sunny’), the non-transitive pendant of b-quy-‘to do’. The present participle quy-n-uca is
used in a relative clause. The word guehesca occurs twice in the prayer with the meaning
‘as’, ‘like’. The closest form attested in the grammars and vocabularies appears to be
guesca ‘the size of’, as in mue m-guesca ‘your size’ (Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 321).
The word for ‘here (non-motion)’ is sinaca;itappears as sinca in the present version.
The ending -n-sie ∼ -n-xie indicates movement away from a place towards the speaker
(cf. Ostler 1993: 13); Lugo (1619: 119) mentions the expression xinaca
nxi ‘from
here’.
108 2 The Chibcha Sphere
5. sua-s puynuca chi-hu-cu ma-ny-sca chi-fun ba chi-hu-cu n-u
day-PT every 1P.PL-presence-AL 2S.SG-give-PR.AG 1P.PL-bread
today 1P.PL-presence-AL give-IM
‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
The phrase sua-s puynuca (with sua ‘day’ in the perlative case) is a fixed expression
‘daily’. The verb forms ma-ny-sca (present participle) and n-u (imperative singular) are
both derived from the transitive verb m-ny- ‘to give’. The form chi-hu-cu is a variant of
chi-hu-c ‘to us’. The word ba ‘today’ is usually written fa.
6. nga chi-chubia a-apqua um-u-zi-nga
and 1P.PL-debt 3S-be.enough 2S.SG-say-NE-F
‘And forgive us our trespasses.’
The root apqua ‘enough’ is preceded by a third-person subject marker a-, possibly
separated from it by a boundary-marking glottal stop. Originally, a- in apqua is a prefix
itself, considering the fact that pqua- occurs as a verb root with a similar meaning ‘to
reach’, ‘to be enough’. The form um-u-zi-nga is derived from gu- ‘to say’, which has
imperative and participle forms uz-u, uz-a without an initial g.However, considering
that the corresponding third-person form is a-gu-zi-nga, the reason for the loss of initial
g appears to be the shape of the second-person prefix (u)m- in this case. At the same
time, the presence of a vowel u in the prefix um- shows that a consonant has been deleted
immediately after the prefix. Otherwise, a form *m-u-zi-nga would be expected. The
expression a-apqua (ze-)gu-squa-za means ‘to forgive’ (literally ‘not to say it matters’).
7. chie chi-huihi-n a-chubia gue a-apqua chi-gu-squa-za guehesca
we 1P.PL-power 3P-debt be 3S-reach.to 1P.PL-say-IA-NE like
‘Asweforgive those who trespass against us.’
The form hui-hi-n, equivalent to hui-na,isfound with meanings such as ‘in the power
of’, or referring to the creditor of a debt (Ostler 1993: 11). The expression a-chubia gue
can be translated as ‘he who has a debt’.
8. pecado-ca chi-bena-n-zi-nga nzhona a-chie um-ta-zi-nga
sin-AL1S.PL-roll-NT-NE-F so.that 3P-light 2S.SG-throw-NE-F
‘And lead us not into temptation.’
The intransitive verb bena-n-istranslated as ‘to roll’, ‘to fall from a state’, ‘to fall into
the mud’; its transitive counterpart is m-ena- ‘to wrap’. Initial b in verb roots is lost after
the transitive b-/m- prefix, which itself then appears as m-. The form nzhona ‘because’,
‘so that’ is normally written nzona. The word a-chie has been interpreted in different
ways. Ostler (1999: 57) reads it as chie ‘first-person plural object’, an interpretation that
2.10 Tunebo (Uw Cuwa) 109
fits the context well. This option is furthermore supported by an alternative version of
the Lord’s Prayer, which reads chie ˆu um-ta-zi-nga ‘do not let go of us’ (from u b-ta-
‘to let go of’). However, chie ‘we’ is not normally found with a prefixed element a-.
By contrast, the combination a-chie (with the third-person possessive prefix) occurs
frequently in expressions referring to ‘light’, ‘clearness’, ‘honour’ and ‘blessing’ (see, for
instance, a-chie gu- ‘to revere’, ‘to honour’ in line 2 of the Prayer; a-chie gue ‘(he/she is)
blessed’; and a-chie-c b-chiby- ‘to look at it in the light’). A possible interpretation could
then be ‘do not cast away the light (or his blessing), so that we may not roll into sin’.
Perhaps, a-chie b-ta- ‘to cast (away) its light’ can be interpreted as an expression ‘to
show the (wrong) way’, ‘to (mis)lead’, because the semantically underspecified verb
b-ta-ispredominantly used in fixed expressions (see section 2.9.4). The negative future
(um-ta-zi-nga) has the value of a negative imperative.
9. nga hataca chi-san um-pquan-ynga-co.
and always 1P.PL-behalf 2S-keep.watch-F-EM
‘But deliver us from evil.’
The literal translation is: ‘And please be sure to always keep watch on our behalf.’ The
element -co is translated in the National Library grammar as ‘take care that you . . .’,
‘do not forget to . . .’; Spanish: ‘mirad que...’(Gonz´alez de P´erez 1987: 160).
2.10 Tunebo (Uw Cuwa)
The Chibchan people formerly known as Tunebo now prefer to use their own ethnic
denomination Uwa or U
wa (‘people’); their language is called Uw Cuwa (‘people’s
tongue’). Uw Cuwa is the closest living relative of Muisca and other extinct languages
of the highlands of Boyac´a and Cundinamarca. But even though Uw Cuwa is in relative
terms the closest living relative of Muisca, it is not in absolute terms closely related to
it. Its sound system is very different from that of Muisca and much less complex.
The present-day Uwa are established mainly on the northern slopes of the Sierra
Nevada del Cocuy, a high mountain massif situated in the northernmost section of the
department of Boyac´a, which borders on Venezuela. The dialects spoken in this area
are known as Cobar´ıa and Tegr´ıa and together have the largest number of speakers. A
second group of Uwa is located further west in the departments of Santander and Norte
de Santander near Agua Blanca, and a third one in the tropical lowlands of Arauca
and Casanare near a place called Barro Negro. The dialect differences are said to be
important. Some Uwa are established in Venezuela. In most sources the estimations
of the number of Uw Cuwa speakers oscillate between 1,800 and 3,600. Arango and
S´anchez (1998) calculate the number of ethnic Uwa in Colombia at approximately
7,000.
110 2 The Chibcha Sphere
Table 2.10 Uw Cuwa (Tunebo) consonant inventory (from Headland 1997)
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Voiceless stops t k k
w
ʔ
Voiced stop b
Fricatives s ˇsh
Nasals m n
Vibrant r
Oral semi-vowels w y
Nasal semi-vowel ˜w
Uricoechea (1871) published a list of words in what he calls the S´ınsiga language,
which was spoken near the town of Chita in Boyac´a. The exemplified language was
Tunebo (Uw Cuwa) beyond any doubt. Chita is situated south of the Sierra Nevada
del Cocuy massif. If Uricoechea’s information is representative, it may mean that the
Uwa once occupied a larger part of the Andean highlands and that they may have had a
highland origin themselves. As agriculturalists, the Uwa take advantage of the different
climatological altitude levels of the mountain slopes. They give a high importance to
purification rituals, which make contact with non-Uwa (who are considered impure)
difficult. Until the 1980s the Uwa opposed the introduction of writing and schooling
(Headland 1997: 6). At present (2001) one of their main concerns is the increased
activity of oil prospectors in their traditional territory.
Among the early work on Uw Cuwa, Rochereau (1926, 1927) is of particular im-
portance. More recent studies by Headland (1977, 1997) are based on the Cubar´ıa and
Teg r´ıa dialects. The consonant inventory of Uw Cuwa, according to Headland (1997),
is represented in table 2.10.
Not only is the consonant system of Uw Cuwa limited in size, the nasal consonants do
not occur in initial position. This may be the reason for the great frequency of b and r in
initial position. The glottal stop can only occur after the first vowel in a word. Consonant
clusters are limited to syllable boundaries. Nouns normally end in a vowel a,which can
be suppressed in specific syntactic environments.
Uw Cuwa has five vowels: a, e, i, o, u. The location of stress is contrastive. Headland
(1997: 10) explicitly states that several additional contrasts can play a role in the first
syllable of a word. They include glottal closure, aspiration and vowel length. There is also
mention of a high tone, which does not necessarily coincide with the stress. Mel´endez
Lozano (2000b: 704) gives examples of minimal pairs contrasted by an ascending and
a descending tone, such as r´uka ‘man’s nephew by sister’s side’ versus r`uka ‘clay pot’
(r´uca versus r´uuca in the transcription of Headland 1997: 168). He adds that the vowel
with descending tone is phonetically long and that the contrast may be one of vowel
2.10 Tunebo (Uw Cuwa) 111
length, rather than of tone. The status of tone in Uw Cuwa clearly requires additional
research.
As other Chibchan languages, Uw Cuwa is predominantly verb-final. The language has
no morphological personal reference markers at all (cf. Ostler 2000: 184). The personal
pronouns, asa ‘I’, isa ‘we’; ba
ʔ
a ‘you (sing.)’, ba:‘you (pl.)’, are used as subject,
object and possessor without any further specification, a situation that is reminiscent of
Cuna and the Chocoan languages. Oblique case is indicated by means of suffixes and
postpositions. The goal of a motion verb, such as bi- ‘to go’, remains unmarked. In
transitive sentences the actor is marked by an ergative suffix -at:
(138) b´onit-at eb y´a-ka-ro
mouse-E maize eat-PN-DV
‘The mouse is eating the maize.’
(Headland 1997: 41)
The genitive marker -ay can be used to form possessive pronouns that are not in a
dependent position.
(139) ir ´eya is-´ay-ro
food that we-G-DV
‘That food is ours.’
(Headland 1997: 20)
Non-interrogative verb forms normally take a declarative marker -ro (138) for specific
events or -k
w
ano for general statements. The marker -ro is also added to nouns and
adjectives in predicative constructions to replace the copula (139). If the sentence is
interrogative, an interrogative marker (-ka or -ki for present, -ya or -yi for past) takes
the place of the declarative marker.
51
Anegation marker -ti- precedes the declarative
marker when required.
Tense formation in Uw Cuwa is subject to a complex set of morphophonemic rules
(cf. Headland 1997: 27–9). Number, which is not normally indicated, is sometimes
reflected by root-internal alternations (140). In other cases number of object and subject
are encoded lexically (141).
(140) yeʔʔn-h´ak-ro yin-h´ak-ro
lift.SG-PA-DV lift.PL-PA-DV
‘He/she rose up.’ ‘They rose up.’
(Headland 1997: 26)
(141) k
w
ik- eʔʔsu-
‘cut (one)’ ‘cut (several)’
(Headland 1997: 27)
The numeral system of Uw Cuwa shares several of the complexities of the Muisca
numerals, which is evidence of the cultural environment that once united both peoples.
51
The endings in -i can be used for greater friendliness (Headland 1997: 52–3).
112 2 The Chibcha Sphere
Uw Cuwa distinguishes cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers and special expressions for
counting days. Single units are counted in relation to a decimal unit that follows, not
to the preceding one. These decimal units are called kes(a) ‘foot’ (compare Muisca
quihicha,which has the same meaning). A literal translation of (142) would be ‘two tens
and one to the third foot’.
(142) uk´asi buk´ay baw´oy kes ´ubisti
52
ten two third foot one
‘twenty-one’
(Headland 1997: 21)
2.11 Yukpa and Magdalena valley Cariban
The Yukpa (or Yuco), are speakers of a complex of closely related Cariban dialects. They
inhabit the Sierra de Perij´a, west of Lake Maracaibo, on both sides of the Colombian–
Venezuelan border. The Yukpa are the northern neighbours of the Bar´ı and were formerly
also known as the Motilones mansos ‘tame Motilones’. The number of Colombian Yukpa
has been calculated at 1,500 (Robayo Moreno 2000), and is matched with an equal
number in Venezuela (Jaramillo G´omez 1987b). Arango and S´anchez (1998) give a
figure of about 3,500 for Colombia alone, presumably all speakers of the language.
Robayo Moreno (2000) distinguishes two dialect groups in Colombia, Iroka and
Sokorpa, corresponding to the two principal protected areas (resguardos) that were set
apart for the Yukpa in that country. The data presented show significant phonetic variation
even within each of these areas. The Venezuelan varieties of Yukpa have been classified
into four groups by Durbin and Seijas (1975). These are, from north to south, Japreria,
Macoita–Rionegrino, Pariri–Wasama–Shaparu and Irapa, leaving a fifth dialect, Viakshi,
unclassified.
On the basis of mutual intelligibility Durbin (1985) concludes that the Yukpa group
consists of two languages, namely, Japreria and a dialect continuum comprising all the
other Yukpa varieties (Yukpa). He states that the closest relatives of the Yukpa group
are extinct languages once spoken along or near the Venezuelan coast, such as Chayma,
Cumanagoto and Tamanaco. The Yukpa, in turn, are the closest known linguistic relatives
of the Op´on–Carare group of the Magdalena river valley (department of Santander,
Colombia).
Durbin and Seijas (1975) reconstruct the consonant inventory of the Yukpa proto-
language, which is represented in table 2.11 below. They emphasise the fact that not all
52
The cardinal pendant of baw´oy ‘third’ is baya ‘three’. Stress is not consistently indicated in
the examples of the source. Here it has been derived from the entries in the dictionary and
the assumption that the rules according to which stress is written are the same as in Spanish
orthography.
2.11 Yukpa and Magdalena valley Cariban 113
Table 2.11 Proto-Yukpa consonants (after Durbin and Seijas 1975)
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Obstruents p t ˇckʔ
Fricatives s ˇsh
Nasals m n
Vibrant r
Glides w y
distinctions occur in all of the present-day dialects (especially the s/ˇs contrast and the
glottal stop) and indicate the Shaparu dialect as the most conservative.
Some of the Colombian dialects have a retroflex affricate [ˇc
.
], which corresponds to
[r] or [] elsewhere. In general, the Colombian dialects appear to have innovative sound
oppositions not found in Venezuela. Consonant clusters, presumably due to previous
vowel loss, are frequent in these dialects.
(143) Iroka: woˇc
.
epa ‘woman’
(Robayo Moreno 2000: 712)
Sokorpa: woepa ‘woman’ (Robayo Moreno 2000: 713)
(144) Iroka d
ˇz
uˇs
.
ˇc
.
u ‘skin’ (Robayo Moreno 2000: 712)
Irapa ˇsuru ‘skin’ (Durbin and Seijas 1975: 74)
Durban and Seijas reconstruct six vowels, a, e, i,
, o, u,which can be either oral,
or nasal. The examples suggest that the functionality of the nasal contrast is limited.
In Japreria the vowel
has a value which is different from those in the other dialects.
Japreria
is high central [¨ı], whereas in the other dialects it is high back unrounded [ɯ].
Historically, there is no correspondence between the two sounds.
Although it is plausible to assume, given the close lexical similarity, that the Yukpa
language complex may be similar to the Cariban languages further east, very little
has been published so far about its morphology and syntax. The available information is
lexical and phonological. Durbin and Seijas (1975: 75) note that the relational-possessive
suffix (-r
, -n
, etc.), which is found in other Cariban languages, such as Galibi (cf. Hoff
1968), has been reduced to glottal stop or zero. Only the Shaparu dialect has retained a
consonant for that suffix.
(145) Japreria, Irapa -p´ana-∅∅ ear-RL ‘someone’s ear’
Macoita, Rionegrino, -p´ana-ʔʔ
Wasama, Pariri
Shaparu -p´ana-t
When body parts are referred to outside the context of a person to which they belong,
a prefix y(
)- is added to the root as in (Iroka) y
-p´ana [d
ˇz
pa:na] ‘ear’ (Robayo Moreno