A short note on Páez (nasa yuwe)
A language spoken in Cauca, south-east of Valle de Cauca, east of Huila and south-east of Tolima.
Paez 2.jpg Paez 1.PNG




The language is originally called Nasa Yuwe “Language of the Nasa”
It is an isolated language and its classification is unclear. Most probably it belongs into a
Macro-Chibcha family (with a possible relationship to Barbacoan languages like Awa, Namtrik, Cayapa
and others).
Nasa Yuwe is an agglutinative language (synthetic language). The order of  sentence is Subject-
Object- Verb
Verbs can be inflected by adding suffixes of tenses and modes. In the second person, there is a
feminine and masculine form.
Pronouns: The first and second person sg. are different for feminine and masculine genders. The
third person is neutral.

Verb pa`ya “to call”- present tense
1st sg.
pa`yatj
2nd sg.
pa`yang (masc.)
pa`yai`cue (fem.)
3rd sg.
pa`yac
1st pl.
pa`ya`tja`w
2nd pl.
pa`yai`cue
3rd pl.
pa`ya`ty
Personal pronouns:
1st sg. masc.
            fem.
andy
u`cue
2nd sg. masc.
             fem.
indy
i`cue
3rd sg.
tyäa
1st pl.
cue`sh
2nd pl.
i`cue`sh
3rd pl.
tyäawe`sh

The nouns have declinations- there is nominative, accusative, dative, ablative, locative and
instrumental. These are formed with suffixes.
There is no lexical difference between singular and plural. Plural is marked by adding a suffix
we`sh. (used only for people and animals and expresses a group of subjects):
U`y “woman”
Naa u`ya` wala zhichcue`
“This woman is very beautiful” (sg.)
U`ya` tawtyi umu`  “The women weave chumbes” (pl.)
U`ywesha` tjengnaty űsu`  “the women (a group) are looking. (col. pl.)

Nominative
Jimba` tangute`c wete.  “The horse fell down white returning.”
Accusative
In singular: `s, after a consonant: a`s
In plural: ty, after a consonant: tyi
Mama` luucha`s pa` ya` c. “Mother called the child.” luuch- “child”.
Caapiyaj sa` luuchtyi pa`cuena űsa. “The teacher is looking for the children.”
Adjectives
Adjectives always follow the noun:
Yat wala “a big house”

To say “thank you” to somebody, a word wech is used in the sentence:
Wech pu`ching “Thank you for helping me.”
Some additional materials:
http://talkingdictionary.swarthmore.edu/paez/?lang=es
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0njgdJkhmE&t=269s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEGfbFAqF0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYrqAHLvL6Y