Chʼol language

The Ch'ol (Chol) language is a member of the western branch of the Mayan language family used by the Ch'ol people in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and Campeche in Mexico. This language, together with Chontal, Ch'orti', and Ch'olti', constitute the Cholan language group.[2]

For similar terms, see Chʼol (disambiguation) and Chol (disambiguation).
Chʼol
Native toMexico
RegionNorth Central Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche
EthnicityCh'ol people
Native speakers
250,000 (2020 census)[1]
Mayan
Early form
Dialects
  • Tila
  • Tumbalá
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3ctu
Glottologchol1282
ELPChol

The Cholan branch of the Mayan languages is considered to be particularly conservative and Ch'ol along with its two closest relatives the Ch'orti' language of Guatemala and Honduras, and the Chontal Maya language of Tabasco are believed to be the modern languages that best reflect their relationship with the Classic Maya language.[3]

Ch'ol-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEXPUJ-AM, broadcasting from Xpujil, Campeche.

Dialects

There are two main dialects of Chʼol:

  • Chʼol of Tila spoken by 43,870 people of whom 10,000 are monolinguals in the villages of Tila, Vicente Guerrero, Chivalito and Limar in Chiapas.
  • Chʼol of Tumbalá spoken by 90,000 people of whom 30,000 are monolinguals in the villages of Tumbalá, Sabanilla, Misijá, Limar, Chivalita and Vicente Guerrero.

Phonology

Consonants

There are 21 consonantal segments in Chʼol. Below is the consonant inventory of Chʼol.[4] Corresponding orthography is presented in the angle brackets next to the IPA symbols.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p ⟨p⟩ tʲ ⟨ty⟩ k ⟨k⟩ ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
ejective pʼ ⟨pʼ⟩ tʲʼ ⟨tyʼ⟩ kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩
voiced b ⟨b⟩
Affricate voiceless ts ⟨ts⟩ tʃ ⟨ch⟩
ejective tsʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩ tʃʼ ⟨chʼ⟩
Fricative s ⟨s⟩ ʃ ⟨x⟩ x ⟨j⟩
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ ɲ ⟨ñ⟩
Liquid lateral l ⟨l⟩
trill r ⟨r⟩
Glide w ⟨w⟩ j ⟨y⟩

For the segments in the palatal column, [tʲ, tʲʼ] are palatlized alveolar consonants, and [tʃ, tʃʼ] are palato-alveolar affricates. Another property of the consonant inventory is that only the labial has a voiced segment [b], which corresponds to the voiced bilabial implosive [ɓ] in Proto-Mayan.[5]

Alveolar sounds [n, t] are only heard as allophones of /ɲ, ts/.

Vowels

Chʼol has a six vowel system, as shown below in the vowel inventory.[6]

Front Central Back
High i ⟨i⟩ ɨ ⟨ä⟩ u ⟨‭u⟩
Mid e ⟨‭e⟩ o ⟨‭o⟩
Low a ⟨‭a⟩

The vowel ä is a distinctive segment in Chʼol, as in other Chʼolan languages. According to Kaufman and Norman (1984), long vowels in the Proto-Mayan language merged with their short counterparts in Chʼolan languages, except for *aa (long) and *a (short). These segments went under a sound change, in which *aa became a and *a became ä.[7]

Syllable Structure

‭Chʼol can have CV, CVC, CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC as possible syllable structures. The most common ones are CV and CVC.[8]

muty[mutʲʰ]'chicken'CVC
pul[pul̥]'to burn'CVC
ja’[xaʔ]'water'CVC
ixik[ʔi.xikʰ]'woman'CV.CVC
wiñik[wi.ɲikʰ]'man'CV.CVC

Like many other Mayan languages, Chʼol does not allow onsetless syllables, which means words that appear to start with vowel in fact have a glottal stop as the onset.

ich[ʔit͡ʃ]'chili'CVC
ax[ʔax]'a type of fruit'CVC
ok[ʔokhʰ]'foot'CVC
ej[ʔej]'tooth'CVC

Although complex onsets and complex codas exist, the former only occur across morpheme boundaries, and the latter are limited to jC.[9]

kpam[kpam̥]'my forehead'
ktyem[ktʲem̥]'my chair'
ch’ujm[t͡ʃ’uxm̥]'pumping'
mujk[muxkʰ]'navel'

Stress

The main stres of a word tipically falls on the ultima in ‭Chʼol. This is true for most of the bisyllabic native words and polysyllabic loanwords. In the following examples, the stress is indicated by an acute accent on the nucleus.[10]

ixím'corn'
okʼól'mud'
jaʼás'banana'
alaxáx‹ Spanish: naranja'orange'
kayetáj‹ Spanish: galleta'cookies'
tyexeléx‹ Spanish: tijera'scissors'

Compound words also have the main stress on the ultima. A secondary stress, indicated by a grave accent, can be heard in the first part of a compound word. This weak stress usually goes on the ultima of the first part.[11]

tyàtymúty'rooster' (male+chicken)
chä̀kmé’'mud' (red+deer)
matyè’chityám'banana' (forest+pig)
bajlä̀mtyé’'orange' (jaguar+tree)

Morphosyntax

The basic word order is VOS. However, word order varies and VOS is not always grammatical: factors including animacy, definiteness, topicalization and focus contribute to determining which word order is appropriate.[12]

Chʼol is a split ergative language: its morphosyntactic alignment varies according to aspect. With perfective aspect, ergative-absolutive alignment is used, whereas with imperfective aspect, we rather observe nominative-accusative.[13]

Numeral classifiers are obligatorily included in noun phrases containing numerals. They occur between the numeral and the noun. The classifiers vary according to semantic properties of the noun: -tyikil is used for persons, -tyejk for trees, etc.[14]

Writing system
Chꞌol alphabet of Tumbála (de Aulie)[15]
Uppercase AɅBCCꞌ ChChꞌDEI JLMNÑ O
Lowercase aʌbccꞌ chchꞌdei jlmnñ o
Uppercase PPꞌQQꞌR STTꞌTsTsꞌ UWXYꞋ
Lowercase ppꞌqqꞌr sttꞌtstsꞌ uwxyꞌ
Chꞌol alphabet of Tila (Warkentin and Scott)[16]
Uppercase AɅBCCꞌ ChChꞌEIJ LMNÑO Pꞌ
Lowercase aʌbccꞌ chchꞌeij lmnño pꞌ
Uppercase QQu'QꞌuRS TTyTꞌTsTsꞌ UWXYꞋ
Lowercase qqu'qꞌurs ttytꞌtstsꞌ uwxyꞌ
Chꞌol alphabet (INALI)[17]
Uppercase ABCHCHꞋE IJKKꞋL MNÑOP
Lowercase abchchꞌe ijkkꞌl mnñop
Uppercase PꞋRSTTS TSꞋTYTYꞋUW XYÄꞋ
Lowercase pꞌrstts tsꞌtytyꞌuw xyäꞌ

Ch’ol relationship with Mayan glyphs

The absence of glyphic material in Guatemala points that the calendar was a creation of the lowland Maya.[3] Ch’ol has been considered one of the closer languages to several Mayan glyphs inscriptions.[18] Lounsbury suggested that the ancient Palenqueños spoke a Proto-cholean language. A certain Palenque ruler has the glyph of a Quetzal head for his name and because the word for Quetzal in Chol is kuk, it is conjectured that his name was Lord Kuk.[19] The affix Landa's I that occurs only with posterior date indicators retains resemblance with the idea of past time of Ch’ol, such in hobix 'five days hence,' hobixi 'five days ago.' As vocabularies of Ch’ol, Chontal, Chorti, and Tzotzil are far from complete, it is not possible to establish some cognates between these languages and Mayan glyphs.[3]

An alternative hypothesis developed by Houston, Robertson, and Stuart proposed that Classic Maya inscriptions between A.D. 250 and 850 convey to Eastern Ch’olan languages, more related to Chorti language than Ch’ol language.[20] However, there is no consensus around the topic.

See also

Notes
  1. Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020. INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  2. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p. 3.
  3. Houston, S., O. Chinchilla, Stuart D. "The Decipherment of Ancient Maya Writing", U. of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
  4. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.34-35
  5. Kaufman, Terrence and William M. Norman. An outline of Proto-Cholan phonology, morphology and vocabulary. In Phoneticism in Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing, ed. by John Justeson and Lyle Campbell, 77-166. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany, 1984; p.86-88
  6. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.41
  7. Kaufman, Terrence and William M. Norman. An outline of Proto-Cholan phonology, morphology and vocabulary. In Phoneticism in Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing, ed. by John Justeson and Lyle Campbell, 77-166. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany, 1984; p.85
  8. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.46
  9. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.47
  10. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.43
  11. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.44
  12. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; pp.21–22
  13. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; pp.177–178
  14. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.160
  15. de Aulie & de Aulie 2009, p. xxi.
  16. Warkentin & Scott 1980, p. 3.
  17. INALI 2011.
  18. Hopkins, Nicholas A.; Josserand, Kathryn (2010). INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF CHOL (MAYAN): With a Sketch of the Grammar of Chol (PDF).
  19. Matthews, Peter; Schele, Linda (1974). "Lords of Palenque: The Glyphic Evidence". Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque : a Conference on the Art, Iconography, and Dynastic History of Palenque, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, December 14–22, 1973. Robert Louis Stevenson School, Pre-Columbian Art Research. OCLC 834378616.
  20. Houston, Stephen; Robertson, John; Stuart, David (2000-06-01). "The Language of Classic Maya Inscriptions". Current Anthropology. 41 (3): 321–356. doi:10.1086/300142. ISSN 0011-3204. PMID 10768879. S2CID 741601.

References
Chʼol language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator


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