Tzeltal language

Tzeltal
Batsʼil Kʼop
Native to	Mexico
Region	Chiapas
Ethnicity	Tzeltal
Native speakers	590,000 (2020 census)[1]
Language family	Mayan Cholan–Tzeltalan Tzeltalan Tzeltal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tzh
Glottolog	tzel1254
ELP	Tzeltal
Map showing languages of the Mayan family
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Tzeltal or Tseltal (

Tzeltal forms, together with the Tzotzil language, a branch of the Mayan languages, called Tzeltalan, which in turn forms a branch with the Chʼolan languages called Cholan–Tzeltalan. 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.^[ambiguous] Also, some researchers believe that the Tzeltal language has been spoken as far away as in Guatemala.^{[citation needed]} While Greenberg groups Tzeltal with the proposed Penutian superfamily, this hypothesis is not well attested.^[7]

The Ethnologue classifies Tzeltal as a 5 out of 10 (Developing) on its scale of endangerment status, and additionally describes its use as "vigorous." Nevertheless, its usage is almost exclusively oral; schools rarely incorporate Tzeltal materials, and as a result almost everyone under the age of 30 is bilingual in Spanish.^[8]

One of the primary differences between the Tzeltalan and the Chʼol languages today is that while the Chʼol languages feature

Tzeltal language programming is carried out by the

Tzeltal has 5 vowels:

Whether vowel length is phonemic/distinctive in Tzeltal is debatable.^[10]

Consonants

Tzeltal has 21 consonants, including the glottal stop. Though Tzeltal does not have a standardized orthography, the bracketed letters in the chart below represent one orthography heavily derivative of Spanish:

[pʼ] has three allophones:^[11]

• [pʼ] at the end of a word: early, sapʼ [sapʼ]
• [ʔb] between vowels: many, tzopʼol [t͡sʰoʔbol]
• [b] everywhere else: road, pʼe [be]

However, in the Oxchuc (central) dialect, the ejective [pʼ] does not exist, having been replaced by the phone [b]. Phonemic charts representing this dialect would include [b] but not [pʼ]. In this dialect, suffixes carrying b often may be realized as [m]. In the initial position of a suffix following a consonant, it is realized as the true stop [b], but in the postvocalic position it is preceded by a glottal stop, such that chabek ('wax') sounds like chaʼbek. When [ʼb] is found in the final position, it can be pronounced as [ʼm], or even disappear completely; thus cheb ('two') could sound like cheʼb, cheʼm, or even cheʼ.^[12]

[w] has two

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

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

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

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

Phonological processes

When a vowel is found in the context [_ʔC], the vowel is pronounced with creaky voice.^[13]

• VC (including
  glottalized consonants and glides
  )
• CV
• CVC (including CVʼ, CVh, CVw, and CVy)
• CVhC
• CVʼC
• CCVC (in which the initial consonants are limited to s, x, and j).

These final three bisyllabic root constructions result almost always from the combination of two roots, and are always nominal roots.^{[12] [14]}

Kaufman provides the following list of minimal pairs from "dialects other than that of Aguacatenango,"^[15] though recall that, for example, [pʼ] is a phoneme in some dialects and does not exist in others.

Morphology

Typology

Tzeltal is an

In the case of noun-to-noun derivation, the suffix -il is particularly prominent, often used to produce a noun marked for non-referentiality in cases of interrogation. It is followed by the additional suffix -uk. In the sentence Banti wits-il-uk ay te ja-na e ("Which mountain is your house on?"), the word Banti ("mountain") receives these suffixes as it is the thing in question ^[clarification needed].

In addition to suffixation and prefixation, Tzeltal uses the morphological processes of

There are seven classes of roots:

1. noun root (N)
2. adjective root (A)
3. transitive verb root (T)
4. positional verb root (P)
5. intransitive verb root (I)
6. inflectable particle root (Pi)
7. particle
   root (Pn)

When roots function as stems, they belong to the following stem classes (expressed using the abbreviations described above):

1. N roots become n stems
2. A roots become aj stems
3. T roots become tv stems
4. P roots become tv stems
5. I roots become iv stems
6. Pi roots become ip stems
7. Pn roots become p stems

There is a small set of multivalent stems that may occur with the inflectional affixes of more than one stem class with no change in the morpheme. Kaufman supplies this list, but does not say whether or not it is complete.

• /tʃʼày/ "to lose" (transitive verb) or "to be lost" (intransitive verb)
• /kʼàhkʼ/ "fire" (noun) or "hot" (adjective)
• /kʼòk/ "to cut" (transitive verb) or "to be cut" (intransitive verb)
• /mès/ "broom" (noun) or "to sweep" (transitive verb)
• /pùl/ "to pour out" (transitive verb) or "to gush forth" (intransitive verb)
• /tùpʼ/ "to put out/extinguish" (transitive verb) or "to go out/be extinguished" (intransitive verb)
• /tʼìm/ "bow" (noun) or "to stretch a string" (transitive verb)
• /yàk/ "snare" (noun) or "to snare" (transitive verb)
• /ʔùtʃʼ/ "to drink" (transitive verb), "to drink" (intransitive verb), or "louse" (noun)

Typical phonetic shapes of morphemes

As is typical of the Mayan languages, the majority of Tzeltal roots are monosyllabic. The basic structure is CVC or CVhC, and most longer words can be analyzed in terms of an affixed CVC or CVhC root.^[12] The following forms are the most common, in which C represents any consonant (unless otherwise indicated), and in which V represents any vowel:

Verbs

Like many Mayan languages, Tzeltal has affect verbs, which can be thought of as a subcategory of intransitive verbs.[19] They generally function as secondary predicates, with adverbial function in the phrase. In Tzeltal they are often onomatopoeic. Affect verbs have the following characteristics:

1. they have their own derivational morphology (the suffixes -et, lajan, and C₁on being the most frequent);
2. they take the imperfective prefix x- but never its auxiliary imperfective marker ya, which is usually present with x- for intransitive verbs;
3. they take the same person markers as intransitive verbs (the absolutive suffixes), but aspect–tense markers appear only in the imperfective; and
4. they may function as primary or secondary predicates.

For example, the onomatopoeic affect verb tum can function as a primary predicate in describing the beating of one's heart: X-tum-ton nax te jk-otʼan e (essentially, "to me goes tum my heart"). As a secondary predicate, an effect verb is typically exhortative, or indicative/descriptive as in the sentence X-kox-lajan y-akan ya x-been ("his injured leg he walks," "he limped").

Tzeltal uses receive, the verb of reception in a kind of periphrastic passive.^{[clarification needed][20]}

Clitics

The most common final-position clitic is =e. It is typically used in conjunction with the determiner te, though the possible semantic outcomes are numerous and governed by complex rules.[21] The remaining four final-position clitics are all deictic: =a or =aː (distal or adverbial marker), =to (proximal marker), =uːk ("also"), and =ki (exclamative).

Finally, the clitic =ix always follows the lexical predicate of a phrase, regardless of the phrase's other constituents. Its signification is similar to those of the Spanish word ya; it is semantically opposed to the clitic =to ("yet")

Inflection

Inflection, typically classified as a subcategory of morphology, describes the ways in which words are modified to express grammatical categories. With regards to verbs it may be called conjugation, and in the case of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and particles it is called declension. In Tzeltal, inflection is most commonly achieved through affixation, though other inflectional processes exist as well.

Person marking

The affixes of person marking depend on the case of the verb. In the absolutive case, all person-marking affixes are suffixes:

Use of the -ik in the third person plural is optional.

Ergative case is marked with prefixes, each of which has two allomorphs depending on whether the word begins with a vowel or a consonant. Rather than having different prefixes for singular and plural person, the plural is expressed with the addition of a suffix as well as the prefix:

Variation between k~hk is characteristic of central Tzeltal. Thought often pre-aspirated, the prevocalic second person ergative form is the sole case of a Tzeltal initial vowel not preceded by a glottal stop. The sets of phrases below demonstrate various combinations of person marking, one with the consonant-initial verb tʼun ("follow") and the vowel-initial verb il ("see") (all are in the imperfective aspect, denoted by ya).

1. ya h-tʼun-at I am following you
2. ya a-tʼun-on You are following me
3. ya s-tʼun-otik He is following us
4. ya h-tʼun-tik-0 We are following him
5. ya h-tʼun-tik-at We are following you
6. ya a-tʼun-otik You are following us or you (pl.) are following us
7. ya h-tʼun-tik-ex We are following you (pl.)
8. ya a-tʼun-on-ik You (pl.) are following me
9. ya s-tʼun-at-ik They are following you
10. ya hk-il-at I see you
11. ya aw-il-on You see me
12. ya y-il-otik He sees us
13. ya hk-il-tik-0 We see him
14. ya hk-il-tik-at We see you
15. ya aw-il-otik You see us or You (pl.) see us
16. ya hk-il-tik-ex We see you (pl.)
17. ya aw-il-on-ik You (pl.) see me
18. ya y-il-at-ik They see you

Aspect marking

Lacking

The imperfective aspect corresponds to an event or action considered as ongoing or unbound. If the action marked as imperfective is understood to be in the present tense, it is generally interpreted as an expression of habit. All verbs can, but do not have to, be marked as imperfective with the auxiliary ya, intransitives further requiring the prefix -x. In the sentence Ya x-weʼ-on ("I eat (habitually)" or "I'm going to eat (now)"), Ya x- marks the verb weʼ ("to eat") as both imperfective and intransitive, while -on marks both case (absolutive) and person/number (first singular). Compare this to the sentence Ya j-naʼ ("I know that") in which the transitive verb -naʼ ("to know [something]") does not receive -x but instead receives, like all transitive verbs, two person/number markers (j-, first person ergative, and -Ø, third person absolutive).

In reality the auxiliary ya is a reduced form of the imperfective marker yak, though variation and conditioning vary greatly across dialects.^[23] In the Bachajón dialect it has been morphologically reanalyzed as a prefix (rather than an auxiliary or preverb), but only when the verb is marked for the second-person ergative. Thus, to say "You know that," speakers from Bachajón may say Ya k-a-naʼ, the -k occurring as a verbal prefix before person/case marker a-, whereas other speakers would prefer Yak a-naʼ. The independence of ya and k in this dialect is shown by the fact that they may be separated by clitics, as in Yato k-a-naʼ ("You already know that": clitic =to "already"). Further, in other dialects ya is commonly reduced to [i], though not systematically. It is, however, systematically absent after the negation ma(ʼ).

Perfective

The perfective aspect is used to present an event as bound or completed. Intransitive verbs do not take any markers in the perfective aspect, and an intransitive verb without aspectual markers is unambiguously understood as perfective. Compare the following two sentences, each with the intransitive verb bajtʼ ("go"), the first perfective and the second imperfective:

• Bajtʼ ta Kʼankujkʼ ("He went to Cancuc")
• Ya x-bajtʼ ta Kʼanjujkʼ ("He's going to go to Cancuc/He will go to Cancuc")

Transitive verbs in the perfective aspect are marked with the auxiliary preverb la ~ laj, the full form laj used in the Oxchuc dialect only when the auxiliary appears alone, as an affirmation. This auxiliary historically comes from the intransitive verb laj ("finish, die"). Certain other "aspectual" or movement-oriented verbs, such as tal ("come") have similarly become usable as auxiliaries, and when used as such appear without person markers, which appear on the following verb.

Though tense is not morphologically indicated in Tzeltal, the perfective aspect can be used in certain constructions to indicate or suggest location in time. In an independent clause, the perfective verb is almost always understood as having occurred in the past, but can signal either a recent or a distant past. It may correspond to the present tense if the terminating point of the event is understood as the present moment. For example, to announce one's immediate departure ("I'm going (now)"), the verb meaning "go" would be marked for the perfective aspect, even though the social circumstances of such a locution would necessitate that the action not yet be complete. Further, the perfective aspect can indicate a past, habitual action, similar to the English "used to" or "would" ("We used to/would go to the park everyday"). In this construction, adverbs such as neel ("before") may additionally be used for clarity. Lastly, when a perfective clause is topicalized, it may be interpreted as a future factual; in the same context an imperfective clause would be interpreted as a conditional statement, with a lesser degree of factuality and punctuality.

• Ya sujtʼ-on tel [te me la j-tae] ("I'll return [when I find it/when I will have found it]")
• [Te me ya jk-ichʼ koltay-ele], ya x-lokʼ ora te atʼele ("[If you help me (habitually)], the work will go faster.")

In the above two examples, the first perfective and the second imperfective, the bolded portions correspond to respective aspect markers. The following chart briefly summarizes the above. Note that, in cases in which the auxiliary ya disappears, imperfective transitive verbs and perfective intransitive verbs would be marked for aspect in the same way, but recall that the presence of ergative person markers is required for transitive verbs and impossible in the case of intransitive verbs.

Perfect

Not to be confused with the

For transitive verbs, the allomorph -oj follows monosyllabic verb stems, while -ej follows polysyllabic verb stems, though the generalization of -oj and subsequent disappearance of -ej seem to be changes in progress. Observe the following two sentences and their translations, the first with the verb ichʼ ("take") and the second with the verb tsʼibuy ("write"):

• K-ichʼ-oj ("I have it (with me)")
• J-tsʼibuy-ej ("I wrote it/It's written")

Perfect intransitive verbs take the suffix -em, which has an allomorph -en following a labial consonant (in Tzeltal, /p, b, w/)

• Atin-em ("He washed himself/He is clean": atin "to wash oneself")
• Lub-en ("He tired himself/He is tired": lub "to be tired")

While verbs in the passive voice are typically conjugated as intransitive (passive transitive verbs taking the suffix -ot), passives in the perfect aspect do not take the intransitive suffix -em but instead receive a unique suffix, -bil. Thus to translate "He is seen" (il: "see") one would say Il-bil and not Il-ot-em.

Perfect constructions in Tzeltal can also signal a "persistent state," similar to the function described above but without the necessity that the characterization be the result of an action or event. Further, when following the clause-initial predicate ay, it is interpreted experientially. If the transitive verb tiʼ ("eat [something]") were marked for the perfect aspect in such a construction, (Aybal a-tiʼ-oj-ix max?) it would translate as "Have you ever eaten monkey (max)?"

Progressive

The

1. Yak(al)-[ABSOLUTIVE MARKER]-ta [INFINITIVE VERB]
   • Tulan yak ta okʼ-el te alale ("The child is currently crying hot tears")
2. Yak(al) [ERGATIVE MARKER]-[TRANSITIVE VERB]-bel-[ABSOLUTIVE MARKER].
   • Yakal j-koltay-bel-at ("I'm currently helping you")

Syntax

Noun phrases

The following schematic represents the full range of possible elements that may exist in a noun phrase:^[24]

[Determiner/demonstrative] [numeral (+classifier)] [adjective(s)] [NOUN] [noun-phrase possessor] [relative clause]

Determiners and demonstratives

The initial position of the noun phrase may be occupied by either the

The la marks the verb in the perfective aspect. In both examples, the transitive verb tsʼun ("sow") takes two personal affixes, the third-person ergative prefix s- and the third-person absolutive, -Ø. In sentence 1, both because of the semantic nature of the verb meaning "sow" and because VOS is the "unmarked" constituent order,^[25] we assume that ixim ("corn") is the object of the verb, and h-bankile ("my-older brother") the subject. In sentence 2, neither the object nor the subject argument appears as a noun phrase; Tzeltal almost never uses pronouns as unmarked topics. The presence of two affixes completes the meaning of the transitive predicate, without the need, as in English, for separate deictic arguments. Because of this paradigm, a transitive verb with both third-person affixes appearing only with one argument (noun phrase) can be ambiguous: La y-il(-Ø) te achʼixe (il, "see" and te achʼixe, "the girl") could mean either "The girl saw it/him/her," or "He/she saw the girl," because the noun phrase te achʼixe could be either the subject or object.

However, in the case of passive phrases, the semantic agent may appear unmarked, while the absolutive suffix is preceded by the passive suffix, -ot:

Tiʼ-ot(-Ø) tsʼiʼ te Mikel ("Mikel was bitten by a dog"; the verb takes only the absolutive person marker -Ø, while, the agent tsʼiʼ ("dog") doesn't correspond to an ergative person marker on the verb.)

With ditransitive verbs, marked with the applicative suffix -b, the indirect object corresponds to an absolutive marker, while the direct object goes unmarked:

La h-man-b-at tumut ("I bought you some eggs"; man ("buy") is marked with the first-person ergative prefix corresponding to "I," and with the second-person ergative suffix corresponding to "you," while tumut ("egg") goes unmarked.)

Polian (2006) provides the following table showing the relative frequencies of various constituent orders occurring with transitive, active verbs (in which V represents the verb, A the semantic agent or subject, and P the semantic passive or object):^[26]

As the three most frequent constructions omit at least one

Information structure

Though there is minor disagreement among linguists as to the placement of post-verbal noun phrases, the most recent studies suggest that

The relative order of a verb and its active and patient arguments, and whether or not a passive construction may be used, can be affected by the definiteness and topicalization of the arguments. When the agent argument is a definite noun (phrase) and the patient argument is indefinite, only the active construction is grammatical. Thus, the Tzeltal equivalent of the phrase "The dog killed a cat" could not be expressed in the passive voice, because the agent "the dog" is definite but the patient "a cat" is indefinite.[27] Inversely, if the patient is definite and the agent indefinite, the passive voice is grammatically required. Whereas an English speaker could say either "A boy hit Michael" or "Michael was hit by a boy," Tzeltal speakers are obligated to use the passive construct.

References

Further reading

Robinson, Stuart P. (2009). Manual of Spoken Tzeltal.

• Gilles Polian. (2020). dictionaria/tseltal: Tseltal-Spanish multidialectal dictionary (Version v1.0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo.
  doi:10.5281/zenodo.3668865

External links

Tzeltal language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator