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.

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.

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

## Alphabet

Chʼol writers have agreed upon the following alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, proposed and developed by Diaz Peñate in 1992.

## Phonology

### Consonants

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

For the segments in the palatal column, [tʲ, tʲʼ] are palatalized 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.

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.

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*.

### Syllable Structure

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

 ej | [ʔej] | 'tooth' | CVC

Although complex onsets and complex codas exist, the former only occur across morpheme boundaries, and the latter are limited to *j*C.

### Stress

The main stress of a word typically 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.

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.

 *bajlä̀mtyé’* | 'orange' (jaguar+tree)

## References

1. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.34-35
2. ↑ 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
3. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.41
4. ↑ 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
5. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.46
6. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.47
7. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.43
8. ↑ Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. *A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan Language*. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 2011; p.44