The Categorial Status of Body Part Prepositions in Valley Zapotec ...

3.1.3 Queque 'head'
I found no instances of queque 'head' being used to refer to a human head in the
documents, although Cordova does define it as "cabeça generalmente” 'head, in general'
(Cordova 1578a, 63). The nominal uses in the documents seem to be metaphorical
extensions from the body part, as in both (27) and (28), where 'head' is used to refer to the
head of a town, perhaps a larger political organizational unit 9 . In (28) a shorter form,
que, is used instead of queque. Que may be another form for 'head' or there may have
been some haplology occurring in this case, because of the phonetic similarity of the
following syllable.
(27) Hu643, lines 1-2
ny lao queche santo donmi [go] xiteni queque queche Huizo
here in town Santo Domingo of head town Huizo
'Here in the town of Santo Domingo belonging to the head of the town of Huizo'
(28) Hu642, lines 5-6
don Pedro de Rojas alcalde ordinario lao que queche Huizo
don Pedro de Rojas alcalde ordinario in head town Huizo
'Don Pedro de Rojas, alcalde ordinario of the head of the town Huizo'
3.1.4 Ni 'foot'
Cordova defines ni as "pie o mano de animal quadrupede” 'foot or forefoot of a
four-legged animal' (Cordova 1578a, 314) and its appearance as a noun in the document
is a metaphorical extension of the body part meaning, as in (24) below, where ni refers to
the foot of the will.
9 Kevin Terraciano (p.c.) has suggested that the expression que(que) queche might be
analyzed as ‘the head town,’ referring to the cabecera. He notes that Nahuatl and Mixtec
developed similar terminology involving the words for head and town to refer to the new
colonial designation of a cabecera. However, this would require a structure in which the
modifier precedes the head, which is unusual for head initial languages.
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