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9-6.12 Human/nonhuman

Certain Missionary and Patron usages result from
failure to take into account the human/nonhuman postulate.

The following type of sentence occurs frequently:

*Uka.x wawa.xa.wa. 'That is my child.' (Ross n.d.:9)
that child Ip

As indicated in 8-2.21, use of a demonstrative as a pro-
noun referring directly to a human being is avoided unless
rudeness is intended. This does not appear to be true of
Missionary Aymara, but such sentences as the above are
nevertheless perceived as rude by non-Missionary speakers.

Certain nouns are used without reference to the
human/nonhuman distinction in Missionary and Patr6én Aymara.
For example, in these two dialects the common nouns jach'a
'big' and jisk'a 'small' are used to refer to anything,
human or nonhuman; the requirement that the noum.phrases
jach'a tansa ‘'tall' and jisk'a tansa ‘short' be used for
human reference is not observed. Similarly, the usual
restrictions on the noun suma 'good, tasty, very' do not
apply. Use of suma to modify a human noun directly is not
perceived as obscene, suma tawaqu being used to mean ‘nice
girl' and the verbalized form Suma.:.ta.wa, ‘You're nice.'
To Yapita, another anomaly results from attempted meta-

phoric use of suma laxra ‘delicious tongue' (i.e. a meat