| Summary: | This paper studies the historical development of the noun *kw-enneʔ ‘person’ from Protozapotec to San Bartolo Yautepec Zapotec, a Southern Zapotec variety. This form grammaticalized into a third person pronoun of respect =mé, the first element of some noun compounds that begin with men-, and the relative pronoun men. Cognate forms of the relative pronoun men in other Cisyautepecan Zapotec varieties are studied. We found evidence of how the reanalysis of noun to relative pronoun took place, and we propose three stages of grammaticalization for these relative pronouns. We suggest the relative pronoun of San Bartolo Yautepec Zapotec is in the second stage since it has suffered the loss of animacy features. We argue that this type of reanalysis is a grammaticalization channel common to Zapotec languages spoken in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, and we give examples from five Zapotec languages.
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