A Grammar of the Yucatecan Mayan Language
by David & Alejandra Bolles

IMPERATIVE AND EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES

177.  Imperative and exclamatory sentences are generally structured much like the declarative sentences. In fact most of these sentences are declarative sentences with an imperative or exclamatory intonation added. However in the chapter on verbs under the section on transitive verbs (Section 79) and the section on intransitive verbs (Section 83) it was noted that there is an imperative tense. Since the sentence structure is somewhat different with the use of this tense we will look at that structure here.

Imperative Sentences Using the Imperative Tense

178.  Sentences in which the imperative tense is used is usually begun with the imperative tense verb. The simplest form of these sentences is constructed by using just the verb itself.

Transitive:

Intransitive:

For the transitive imperative tense often an object is expressed:

Taz ten in hanal!   "Bring me my food!"

Biz le palalobo!   "Take the children!"

Cħa le tunicho!   "Take that stone!"

Adverbs and adverbial clauses are appended to these verbs.

Bize zebi!   "Take it quickly!"

Taze beyora!   "Bring it now!"

Ualen zebi!   "Stand up / stop quickly!"

Xen telo!   "Go there!"

Coten uaye!   "Come here!"

Taz ten in hanal uaye!   "Bring me my food here!"

Ualen tu tzel le coto!   "Stand up next to that wall!"

Xen te pachilo!   "Go back there!"

Coten utial in pactic a uich!   "Come so that I can see your face!"

179.  Some intransitive imperative tense verbs, xen (go) and coten (come) in particular, are used in conjunction with the first form of transitive and intransitive verbs to form complex imperative verbs. The transitive verb is usually preceded by the second person personal pronoun a but the intransitive verb is not.

Xen a cħa ten in hanal!   "Go and get me my food!"

Xen a ppoic ten in nok!   "Go wash my clothes!"

Coteneex a uanteneex!   "Come and help me!"

Xen uenel!   "Go to sleep!"

Xeneex hanal!   "Go and eat!"

Coten hanal!   "Come and eat!"

In the colonial literature the personal pronoun a is not used in front of the transitive verb.

Xen cħa ten yibnel caan uaye!   "Go and bring me the placenta of heaven here!"

Xen cħa ten a uex utial in uic u boc uaye!   "Go and bring me here your loincloth so that I can smell its odor!"

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