CORUNA Y COLLUDO THE ZOqUE LANGUAGE. 4! 



THE ZAPOTECA. 



The Zapotecs are near neighbors of the Zoques, and the few 

 thousands of this race still surviving are all that is left of the once 

 populous and mighty kingdom of Zapotecapan, one of the ancient 

 civilized states of America — a people which successfully resisted 

 the armies of the allied kingdoms of Anahuac. 



The language spoken by this race is far more copious, and sus- 

 ceptible of giving expression to ideas, than the Zoque, or indeed 

 of any American language yet reduced to form, save the Otomi, 

 the Aztec, the Tzendal, the Maya, and the Quiche-Cakchiquel, 

 and possibly the Nagrandan and Peruvian. 



The present seat of the Zapotecs is the eastern slope on the 

 isthmus of Tehuantepec. Once they had cities and towns, and a 

 semi-civilized social organism peculiar to themselves, extending 

 over the entire region from Oaxaca to Tehuantepec. Of the lan- 

 guage spoken by this people, the learned abbe Brasseur de Bour- 

 bourg says : La langue Zapoteque est (Tune douceur et d^une 

 sonorite qui rappelle V Italienne. (B. de B. Esquisess, p. 35.) 

 Bui'goa is still more pleased with the language, of which he thus 

 speaks in his " Geognifica Descripcion" : Su lenguage era tan 

 vietaforico como el de los Palestinos, lo que querian persuadir 

 hablaban sie?npre con parabolas. ' 



Juan Cordova prepared a grammar of the Zapoteca more than 

 a century and a half ago, but this author seems to have lacked 

 the requisite scholastic ability for the proper execution of his self- 

 imposed task. As yet a complete vocabulary has not been pub- 

 lished. Seiior J. Corona is now engaged in an effort to make 

 this valuable addition to the stock of philological material for the 

 student of American languages. 



The sounds of the Zapotec language may be expressed by the 

 following letters of the English alphabet: a, /;, c/^, e, g^ h, z', 

 k^ /, w, «, n, c, p, r, /, u, jv, A", 2-, th. 



There are also five diphthongs, viz., ce^ ce, ei, I'e, and ou. 



One of the peculiarities of the Zapotec language is that of ex- 

 pressing the plural number by the use of numerals, sometimes by 

 adjectives. A Zapotec will say pichina^ deer ; but if he wished 

 to designate a lierd of deer, he would say ziana pichina^ many 

 deer. 



