Tz’utujil language
| Tz’utujil | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tz'utujiil | ||||
| Spoken in | Guatemala | |||
| Region | Western Highlands | |||
| Ethnicity | Tz'utujil | |||
| Native speakers | ca. 84,000 (1990–1998) | |||
| Language family |
Mayan
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| Official status | ||||
| Recognised minority language in | Guatemala[1] | |||
| Regulated by | Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | tzj | |||
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Tz'utujil (or Tz'utujiil) is a Mayan language spoken by the Tz'utujil people in the region to the south of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Tz'utujil is closely related to its larger neighbors, Kaqchikel and K'iche'. Today approximately 84,000 speak Tz'utujil as their mother tongue.[2][3] The two Tz'utijil dialects are Eastern Tz'utijil (50,000 speakers in 1998) and Western Tz'utijil (33,800 speakers in 1990).[2]
The majority of the Tz'utujil people have Spanish as their second language, although many of the older people, or those in more remote locations do not. Many children also do not learn Spanish until they go to school around the age of five although more importance is now being placed upon it due to the influx of tourism into the region. Spanish is used in written communication.
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[edit] Phonology
In the charts below each of the Tz'utujil phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the standard orthography developed by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG) and sanctioned by the Guatemalan government. Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet appears in brackets.
[edit] Vowels
Tz'utujil has five short and five long vowels.
| Short | Long | |
|---|---|---|
| i | ii | close front unrounded vowel |
| e | ee | mid front unrounded vowel |
| a | aa | open central unrounded vowel |
| u | uu | close back rounded vowel |
| o | oo | mid back rounded vowel |
[edit] Consonants
Like other Mayan languages, Tz'utujil does not distinguish voiced and voiceless stops and affricates but instead distinguishes plain and glottalized stops and affricates. The plain stops and affricates (technically "pulmonic egressive") are usually voiceless and are aspirated at the ends of words and unaspirated elsewhere. The glottalized stops and affricates are usually ejective in the case of k' , ch' , and tz' and implosive in the case of b' , t' , and q' .
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | ||
| Stops | p [p] | b' [ɓ] | t [t] | t' [ɗ] | k [k] | k' [ɠ] | q [q] | q' [ʠ] | ' [ʔ] | |||
| Affricates | tz [ts] | tz' [tsʼ] | ch [tʃ] | ch' [tʃʼ] | ||||||||
| Fricatives | w [v] | s | x [ʃ] | j [χ] | ||||||||
| Nasals | m [m] | n [n] | nh [ŋ] | |||||||||
| Liquids | l [l] r [ɽ] | |||||||||||
| Glides | y [j] | |||||||||||
[edit] Sample words and phrases
- maltyoox - 'thank-you'
- saqari - 'good morning'
- xqa'j q'iij - good afternoon
- xok aaq'a' - 'good night'
- na'an - 'good-bye'
- jo' - 'let's go!'
- utz aawach - 'how are you?'
- jee' - 'yes'
- mani' - 'no'
- Link to introductory Tz'utujil document (PDF)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Congreso de la República de Guatemala. "Decreto Número 19-2003. Ley de Idiomas Nacionales". http://www.congreso.gob.gt/gt/mostrar_ley.asp?id=448. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
- ^ a b Gordon 2005
- ^ The official 2002 census mentions a lower figure of 63,237 Tz'utujil speakers. See "XI Censo Nacional de Población y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002) - Idioma o lengua en que aprendió a hablar". Instituto Nacional de Estadística. 2002. http://www.ine.gob.gt/Nesstar/Censo2002/survey0/dataSet/dataFiles/dataFile1/var27.html. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
[edit] References
Dayley, Jon P. (1985). Tzutujil Grammar. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09962-1.
García Ixmatá, Pablo (1997). Rukeemiik ja Tz'utujiil Chii': Gramática tz'utujiil. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Cholsamaj. ISBN 99922-53-13-4.
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. (2005) (online version). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Barbara F. Grimes (contributing ed.) (Fifteenth ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. OCLC 60338097.
Pérez Mendoza, Francisco; Miguel Hernández Mendoza (1996). Diccionario Tz'utujil. Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala: Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín/Cholsamaj.
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