Tzʼutujil is a

Mayan language Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

spoken by the

Tzʼutujil people The Tzʼutujil (Tzutujil, Tzutuhil, Sutujil) are an Indigenous people, one of the 22 Maya ethnic groups that live in Guatemala. Together with the Xinca, Garífunas ( Black Caribs) and the Ladinos, they make up the 25 ethnic groups in the countr ...

in the region to the south of

Lake Atitlán Lake Atitlán (, ) is a lake in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range. The lake is located in the Sololá Department of southwestern Guatemala. It is known as the deepest lake in Central America. Name Atitlán means "betwe ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. Tzʼutujil is closely related to its larger neighbors, Kaqchikel and Kʼicheʼ. The 2002 census found that 60,000 people speak Tzʼutujil as their mother tongue. The two Tzʼutujil dialects are Eastern and Western. The majority of the

speak

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

as a

second language A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language. A speaker's dominant language, which ...

, although many of the older people, or those who live remote areas do not speak Spanish. Many children also do not learn

until they first go to school at the age of five although more importance is now being placed upon it due to the influx of tourism into the region. As of 2012, the Community Library Rijaʼtzuul Naʼooj in San Juan La Laguna features story telling for children in Tzʼutujil; bilingual children's books are also available.

is used in written communication.

Phonology

In the charts below each of the Tzʼutujil 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 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

appears in brackets. Stress is always on the final syllable of native words, except for the adjectival vowel suffix in certain environments.Daley 1985

Vowels

Tzʼutujil has five short and five long

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s. ''Ee'' and ''oo'' tend to be more open () before a glottal stop. Many words allow either ''a'' and ''e'', and although many allow ''a'' only, there are few which require ''e'', suggesting that is merging into . A smaller number of words allow either ''a'' or ''o''.

Consonants

Like other Mayan languages, Tzʼutujil does not distinguish

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

and voiceless stops and

affricates An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...

but instead distinguishes pulmonic and

glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...

stops and affricates. The glottalized stop ''kʼ'' and affricates ''chʼ'', ''tzʼ'' are

ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...

, while ''bʼ'', ''tʼ'' are voiced

implosive Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in additi ...

s before vowels, and ejectives (, ) elsewhere (before consonants and at the ends of words). ''Qʼ'' may be either ejective or implosive before vowels, ejective elsewhere. The pulmonic stops and affricates, ''p, t, tz, ch, k, q,'' are tenuis before vowels and aspirated elsewhere. Velar ''k, kʼ'' are palatalized before ''i'', and also usually before a non-back vowel (''i, e, a'') followed by a post-velar (''q, qʼ, j''), though the latter

dissimilation In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar or elided. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such ...

is not completely productive. ''W'' is before front vowels (''i, e'') and before non-front vowels (''a, o, u''). ''J'' is a post-velar in most positions, but before two consonants or a word-final consonant. At the beginning of a morpheme, there is no distinction between glottal stop and zero: Monosyllabic forms always have a glottal stop, with the exception of a few grammatical forms which never do, and when prefixed the glottal stop is retained. With polysyllabic forms the glottal stop is optional, and when prefixed it is not retained. Usually initial glottal stops are invisible to the morphology, but in some words they are treated as consonants. Liquids and approximants, ''r, l, w, y'', are devoiced word-finally and before consonants, even before voiced consonants as in . The nasals, ''m, n'', are partially devoiced word-finally: they start off voiced, and end up voiceless.

Sample words and phrases

* or – 'thank-you' * – 'you're welcome' (also said after finishing every meal) * – 'good morning' * – 'good afternoon' * – 'good night' * – 'good-bye' * – 'let's go!' * – 'how are you?' * – 'yes' * or – 'no'

Notes

References

* * * Grimes, Larry
"Tzʼutujil Phonetics".
''Mayan Languages Collection of Larry Grimes''. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America: www.ailla.utexas.org. Media: audio. Access: public. Resource: TZJ003R001. *

External links

Introductory Tzʼutujil document (PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tzʼutujil Language Agglutinative languages Mayan languages Indigenous languages of Central America Mesoamerican languages Languages of Guatemala