125

Bertonio (1603b) gave a number of examples of
nouns and verbs beginning with /j/ or a vowel (or either)
which in present-day La Paz Aymara have the opposite form

or only one of them.

(Bertonio 1603b) (La Paz/Tiahuanaco)
'evening' * vaypu/ /jayp'u/
‘bird! * yamachi/ /jamach' i/
‘meat' */Jaycha/ /aycha/
"to drink’ * juma-/ /uma.fia/
‘to take people' */jirpa-/ /irpa.fia/
‘to come’ "/juta ~ uta/ /juta.fia/

Similar correspondences are found between examples of
Puno Aymara given by M. Franco Inojosa (1965) and corre-
sponding terms in La Paz Aymara. Within one dialect,
however, especially in verbs, there is little free varia-
tion in initial /j/ and @ since two different verbs may
differ solely in the presence or absence of initial /j/.

The following minimal pairs are from La Paz/Tiahuanaco:

ay.ta.fa ‘to pick up a ayt.su.fia 'to rinse a pot'
cylindrical
object'

jay.ta.fia ‘to leave' jayt.su.fia ‘to abandon'