Chʼortiʼ language

The consonants of Chʼortiʼ include glottal stop ʼ, b, bʼ, ch, chʼ, d, g, j, k, kʼ, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, tʼ, tz, tzʼ, w, x, y.

Both /b/ and /d/ rarely occur in native vocabulary. Instead, they usually appear in Spanish words. The <j> is a voiceless velar fricative. The <x> is a voiceless palatal fricative. The <w> and <y> are semivowels.

The ordering of terms would be that the consonants follows after the non glottal versions. Besides, words with rearticulated root vowels follow after their corresponding short vowels.

Therefore, the order of presentation will be as follows: a, aʼ, b, bʼ, ch, chʼ, d, e, eʼ, g, i, iʼ, j, k, kʼ, l, m, n, o, oʼ, p, r, s, t, tʼ, tz, tzʼ, u, uʼ, w, x, y.

The vowels consist of a, e, i, o, and u.[8]

Vowel clusters

In Ch'orti' language, aa or a: is used as a’ or A’, we can see this pattern with all vowel clusters including e’, I’, o’ and u’.

Some examples of words with vowel clusters are:

Ja’x [xa ʔʃ] = Her, ella

We’r [weʔr] = meat, carne  

B’i’x [p’iʔʃ] = seed, semilla

Tuno’ron [tu.’noʔ.o.’ɾon] = everyone, todos

Ku’m [kuʔm] = egg, huevo [9]

Some examples of words with consonant clusters are:

Cha' [t͡sa’] = two, dos

Ch'aku' [ʧ͡’a.’kuʔ] = woodpecker, pájaro carpintero

Tze'ne'r [t͡seʔ.’neʔr] = laugh, reírse

Tz'i' [t͡s’iʔ ] = dog, perro [10]

The aspectual system of Chʼortiʼ language changed to a tripartite pronominal system which comes with different morphemes used for the subject of transitive verbs, the object of transitive verbs and the subject of intransitive completive verbs, and a third set of pronouns only used for the subject of incompletive intransitive verbs.[11]

Chʼortiʼ tripartite pronominal system (data from Hull 2005)

Transitive

'The boy chops the wood (into tiny pieces)'

Intransitive completive

'The tomato turned out delicious'

Intransitive incompletive

'The sun sets in the west'

Basic word order

In the Ch'orti language and other Mayan sentences it always starts with verbs but also there are agents or patients added and in which they are commonly represented by the acronym VOS, and it stands for Verb, Object and Subject. The following rules apply VSO, SVO, SOV,OVS, OSV.[12]

In most of the Ch’orti' language there are phrases surrounding transitive verbs and they are order subject first (first-most) and it’s followed by the verb then the object (SVO).[13]

Verb object subject [12]

"Grandma sells vegetables"

Adjectives with attributive function

The adjective works together with the nouns as a modifier formed with a noun phrase that plays some syntactic role, object etc.[12]

Predicative adjective indicate the size, color or state

Ch'orti has many other different forms, in the following sentence the words that appear to be bold is a preposition and underline one is a relational noun.[12]

E chij numuy tu't e max-tak

The horse passed in.front.of the child-plural

"The horse passed in front of the children"

There are two types of Functions, verbal and nonverbal.

Set A: Subject of transitive verb

Possessor of noun

Set B: Object of transitive verb

Subject of intransitive verb in perfective aspect

Subject of predicative nominal

Argument of participials (in -an, -b'ir, -em, -Vr, -en)

Argument of adjectives

Argument of tamar `for, to, etc.’

Set C: Subject of intransitive verb in the imperfective aspect

Tak is plural for women and children’

ijch'ok-tak `little girls’

max-tak `children, young ones, family’ (max does not occur without -tak)

ixik-tak `women’

These are the only instances encountered. It is worthy of notice that ixka'r `wife’, ch'urkab' `baby’ and ar `offspring’ take -ob'.

ob' is a general plural. The suffix can be found in nouns, verbs, adjectives, and participials. Here are some examples:

e     mutob'   war ub'axyob' nijinaj

e   mut-ob' war u-b'ax-i-ob' ni-jinaj

DEF.ART bird-3.PL PROG 3A-pull_up-THEM-3.PL 1A.SG-maize_plant

`Los pájaros están arrancando mi milpa.’ (b'axa)

The birds are pulling my maize plant.

Yarob' b'ik'it ruch

Yar-ob' b'ik'it ruch

small-3.PL small_variety_of gourd_container`

And then come two little gourds,...’ (f330040)

[17]

This region is the only region in the world that Chʼorti speakers can be found. Although the area is completely shaded in, the majority of speakers reside in Guatemala, while the rest are sparsely distributed throughout the rest of the area.[18]

The government of Honduras has been trying to promote a uniform national language of Spanish, and therefore discourages the use and teaching of native languages such as Chʼorti. The Chʼortiʼ people in Honduras face homogenization and have to assimilate to their surroundings. The government has been clashing with the Chʼorti people over land disputes from the 1800s, which puts the people (and thus the language) at risk. In 1997, 2 prominent Chʼorti leaders were assassinated. This assassination is just one example of many cases where Chʼorti advocates have been harmed or killed. Every one of these killings reduces the number of Chʼorti speakers. As of right now, there are only 10 remaining native speakers in Honduras.[19]

The government of Guatemala has been more supportive of Chʼorti speakers and has promoted programs that encourage the learning and teaching of Chʼorti. The Chʼorti's in Guatemala wear traditional clothing, unlike their counterparts in Honduras, who wear modern-day clothing.[19] Currently there are about 55,250 Chʼorti speakers in Guatemala. Even though Guatemala has established Spanish as its official language, it supports the teaching of these native languages.

The majority of Chʼortiʼ live in the Chiquimula Department of Guatemala, approximately 52,000. The remaining 4,000 live in Copán, Honduras. Traditionally, the highland Maya Indian people were dependent on maize and beans. The Kʼicheʼ Maya however, dominated the Chʼortiʼ dating back to the early fifteenth century. Warfare as well as disease devastated much of the Chʼortiʼ during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Much of their land was lost to the Guatemalan government in the nineteenth century as well. More recently, 25 percent of the Guatemalan Chʼortiʼ went to the United States during the 1980s to escape political persecution.[20]

Catata Dios / Our Father

9b Catata Dios xeʼ turet tichan, catattzʼi acʼabʼa xeʼ erach.

Lar tuaʼ icʼotori tara tor e rum wacchetaca. Y chen lo que acʼani tara tor e rum bʼan cocha war ache tichan tut e qʼuin.

Ajcʼunon lo que ucʼani tuaʼ cacʼuxi tama inteʼ inteʼ día.

Cʼumpen tacaron tamar camabʼambʼanir lo que cay cache toit net, bʼan cocha war cacʼumpa taca tin e cay uchiobʼ e mabʼambʼanir

capater ubʼan.

Ira awacton tuaʼ capijchna sino que corpeson tama tunor ucʼotorer e diablo. Porque net jax Careyet, y net ayan meyra acʼotorer, y net ayan meyra atawarer xeʼ machi tuaʼ acʼapa. Amén.[21]