Tzeltal language

Tzeltal is a Mayan language spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas, mostly in the municipalities of Ocosingo, Altamirano, Huixtán, Tenejapa, Yajalón, Chanal, Sitalá, Amatenango del Valle, Socoltenango, Villa las Rosas, Chilón, San Juan Cancun, San Cristóbal de las Casas and Oxchuc. It is a living language with some 215,145 speakers, including a number of monolinguals.^[2]

Most linguists distinguish between six dialects of the language named after the regions in Chiapas where they are primarily spoken. The dialects are Bachajón Tzeltal, Ocosingo Tzeltal, Oxchuc Tzeltal, Tenejapa Tzeltal, Amatenango Tzeltal and Awacatenango Tzeltal. The first two dialects form a dialectal group called Lowland Tzeltal, while the others form a dialectal group called Highland Tzeltal.

Tzeltal forms, together with the Tzotzil language, a sub-branch of the Mayan languages, called Tzeltalan, which again forms a sub-branch called Cholan-Tzeltalan, together with the Ch'ol languages, Chontal, Ch'ol and Ch'orti'. All these languages are the most spoken Mayan languages in Chiapas today. Historically, the branches are believed to have split about 1,400 years ago. Also, some researchers believe that the Tzeltal language has been spoken as far away as in Guatemala.^{[citation needed]}

One of the primary differences between the Tzeltalan- and the Ch'ol languages today is that while the Ch'ol languages feature split ergativity, the Tzeltalan languages are fully morphologically ergative.

Tzeltal language programming is carried out by the CDI's radio station XEVFS, broadcasting from Las Margaritas, Chiapas.

Phonology

The phonology of Tzeltal is quite straightforward with a common vowel inventory and a typical consonant inventory for Mayan languages. Some phonological processes do occur, however, including assimilation, epenthesis, lenition and reduplication.

Vowels

Tzeltal has 5 vowels:

Whether vowel length is phonemic distinctive in Tzeltal is debatable.^[3]

Consonants

Tzeltal has 21 consonants, including the glottal stop:

[pʼ] has three allophones:^[4]

• [pʼ] in the end of a word: early, sap' [sapʼ]
• [ʔb] between vowels: many, tzop'ol [t͡sʰoʔbol]
• [b] everywhere else: road, p'e [be]

[w] has two allophones:

• [β] when it is the first member of a CC-consonant cluster,

or if it is in the end of a word: seed, awlil [ʔaβlil]

• [w] everywhere else: I feared, siwon [siwon]

Note, however, that it can be interchangably [w] or [β] in the beginning of a word, as in older sister, wix [wiʃ] ~ [βiʃ].

External links

• tzeltal.org

References

Notes

General

Robinson, Stuart P. (2009). Manual of Spoken Tzeltal. http://www.tzeltal.org/cgi-bin/stuart/tzeltal/static_page.cgi?page=download. 

Shklovsky, Kirill (2005). Person Marking in Petalcingo Tzeltal. http://linguistics.kirill.org/KS-thesis-large.pdf. 

Gerdel, Florence (1955). Tzeltal (Maya) Phonemes. http://www.sil.org/mexico/workpapers/scans/WS001i-WS012i-WorkpaperScans.htm.