Chʼol language

The Chʼol (Chol) language is a member of the western branch of the Mayan language family used by the Chʼol people in the Mexican state of Chiapas. There are two main dialects:

  • 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.
For similar terms, see Chʼol (disambiguation) and Chol (disambiguation).
Chʼol
Native toMexico
RegionNorth Central Chiapas Tabasco
EthnicityChʼol people
Native speakers
241,073 (2015 census)[1]
Mayan
Early form
Language codes
ISO 639-3ctu
Glottologchol1282
ELPChol[2]

The Cholan branch of the Mayan languages is considered to be particularly conservative and Chʼol along with its two closest relatives the Chʼortiʼ 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]

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

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6]

Phonology

Below is the consonant and vowel inventory of Chʼol.[7]

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
StopsVoiced b
Voiceless p tʲ k ʔ
Ejective pʼ tʲʼ kʼ
Fricative s ʃ x
AffricatesVoiceless ts tʃ
Ejective tsʼ tʃʼ
Nasals m ɲ
Laterals l
Trills r
Glides w j
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e o
Low a

See also

Notes
  1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Chol.
  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; pp.21-22
  5. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; pp.177-178
  6. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.160
  7. Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.35

References
  • Aulie, H. Wilbur; Evelyn W. Aulie, eds. (1998) [1978]. Diccionario Chʼol de Tumbalá, Chiapas, con variaciones dialectales de Tila y Sabanilla [Chʼol Dictionary of Tumbalá, Chiapas with dialectal variations from Tila and Sabanilla]. Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas "Mariano Silva y Aceves", No. 121. Emily Stairs (electronic reproduction with March 2005 corrections, 2nd ed.). Coyoacán, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. ISBN 968-31-0291-3. OCLC 42692322.
  • Coon, Jessica (2010). "Complementation in Chol (Mayan): A Theory of Split Ergativity" (electronic version). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-07-15. [includes a grammatical sketch of the language]
  • Schumann, Otto Gálvez (1973). La lengua Chol de Tila (Chiapas). UNAM..
  • Warkentin, Viola; Ruby Scott (1980). Gramática Chʼol. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • "Estadística básica de la población hablante de lenguas indígenas nacionales 2015". site.inali.gob.mx. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2019-10-26.


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