Table Of ContentCopyright
by
Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez
2011
The Dissertation Committee for Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez Certifies that this is
the approved version of the following dissertation:
A GRAMMAR OF CHOL, A MAYAN LANGUAGE
Committee:
Nora C England, Supervisor
Roberto Zavala, Co-Supervisor
Patience L Epps
Anthony C Woodbury
David S Stuart
by
Juan Jesús Vázquez Alvarez, B.A.; M.A.
Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
The University of Texas at Austin
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Texas at Austin
August 2011
Acknowledgements
This dissertation is the result of work with diverse agents including Chol speakers,
professors, colleagues, friends and family, as well as the funds provided by several
institutions. Without them this project would not have been possible.
I would like to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to the people of several
communities that I visited and who opened their doors to me in Panwits, El Calvario,
Tila, Jolpokitiok, Nueva Esperanza, Sabanilla, Hidalgo, Allende, and Pactiun. Several
Chol teachers and writers working in institutions of education or culture help me to
validate statements presented throughout the thesis. Special thanks to Rubén López
López (Sabanilla), Enrique Jiménez Jiménez (Jolpokitiok), Nicolás López Arcos (Ruiz
Cortinez), Nicolás Arcos López (San Miguel), Silvestre Gómez Jiménez (Limar), Pedro
Gutiérrez Sánchez (Tila), Nicolás Alvaro Arcos (Ejido Egipto), María Mayo Mendoza
(Palenque), Gabriel Arcos Álvarez (Palenque) and Pascual Arcos Álvarez (Palenque).
I also want to thank my committee members, Nora England, Roberto Zavala
Maldonado, Patience Epps, Anthony Woodbury, and David Stuart for their comments
and advice on improving the project. I especially thank Nora England and Roberto Zavala
Maldonado who graciously accepted the responsibility of being co-directors of my
dissertation. I have learned a lot from working closely with both of them. I appreciated
their support, encouragement, and advice when I thought that everything was lost. Their
questions, comments, and corrections have helped to improve my research immeasurably.
Any errors that may remain are my fault.
During my years at the University of Texas, I am fortunate to have made many
friends with people either interested in Mayan languages or topics in linguistic theories. I
spent many hours discussing the nature of Chol with Danny Law, Maria Garcia, Jessica
Coon, Eladio Mateo Toledo (B’alam), Odilio Jiménez (Ajb’ee), I-wen Lai, William
Blunk, Telma Can, Adan Francisco Pascual, Gabriela García, Lydia Rodríguez, and
Margarita Valdovinos to whom I express my gratitude. Danny Law and I not only taught
linguistics to Mayan speakers in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, but also cleared cafetal and
dug and leveled ground during several days of field work in Chiapas. Together we gained
a new perspective on the term “field work”. Danny Law, María García, and Jessica Coon
iv
also helped me to use the correct English words in the right order. In this aspect of the
project, Tony Wright, Justin Macintosh, Wikaliler Daniel Smith, Karen Bassie, and
Rebecca Schreuder were also involved. I thank them all.
I arrived at the University of Texas at Austin to start the English as a Second
Language (ESL) program, under the sponsor of the Center for Indigenous Languages of
Latin America. Later, I started my graduate program under the sponsorship of the
International Fellowships Program (FORD-Foundation) and I finished with the financial
support of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT). During my field
work year in Chiapas, I was a guest student at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios
Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS-Sureste). During this period I had access to
all the facilities of Roberto Zavala’s office. Without these sponsorships it would have
been impossible for me to finish the program. I thank them all.
Finally, my most heart-felt thanks to my family. To my parents, brothers and sisters
who always kept an eye on my financial condition and health as well as the strength of
my spirit when I was abroad. I especially thank Sandra for her company and support, and
because she was always mindful of the progress of the writing process. Yoyel, Kajé, and
Yoké, pardon me for my absence during this time.
v
A Grammar of Chol, a Mayan language
Publication No._____________
Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin, 2011
Supervisors: Nora England and Roberto Zavala Maldonado
This dissertation consists of a description of the grammar of Tila Chol. Chol is one of the
30 Mayan languages spoken in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. This language is used by
nearly 200,000 speakers, distributed in two main dialects: Tila Chol and Tumbalá Chol.
The data for this thesis are mostly from Tila Chol.
This dissertation includes aspects of phonology, morphology, and syntax from a
contrastive and typological perspective. The grammar begins with general information
about the speakers and the language (chapter one). Chapter two is a description of
phonology, which includes the inventory of sounds, stress, syllabic patterns and
phonological processes. Chapter three presents the properties of root/word classes, as
well as affixes and particles. Chapter four is about the person and number markers.
Chapter five provides the main features of word classes, such as verbs, nouns, adjectives,
positionals, affect words, adverbs, minor classes and clitics. The next chapter (chapter
six) deals with the elements that verbs can take, including incorporation of modifiers and
noun incorporation. Chapter seven provides the main features of non-verbal predicates. In
chapter eight, the structures of noun phrases, such as possessors, determiners and
modifiers are presented. Chapter nine describes the structure of simple sentences in both
verbal and non-verbal predicates. Chapter ten is devoted to the operations that change
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valence, including passive, antipassive, reflexive/reciprocal, causative and applicative.
Chapter eleven deals with information structure in the discourse, specifically
topicalization and focus. Chapter twelve is a brief description of passive constructions as
operations triggered by paradigmatic gaps related to obviation as documented in
Algonquian languages. Chapter thirteen deals with complex predicate structures. Finally,
in Chapter fourteen, the complex sentences are described, including complement clauses,
relative clauses, adverbial clauses, conditional clauses and coordination
This grammar will provide useful information for current Chol projects related to
strengthening and revitalization efforts, such as in the construction of pedagogical
materials and will also be useful for the field of linguistics or other related areas.
vii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………….......................... iv
List of Tables …………………………………………............................................... xvi
List of Maps ………………………………………………….................................... xvii
List of Figures …………………………………………………................................. xviii
Abbreviations ………………………………………………….................................. xix
I. General Information about Chol and the Chol people ……………………….... 1
1.1. Geographical information……………………………………………………...… 1
1.2. The Chol language ………………………………………………………………. 3
1.3. The speakers ……………………………………………………………............... 4
1.4. Dialects …………………………………………………………………………... 4
1.5. Neighbors ………………………………………………………………………... 6
1.5.1. Mixe-Zoquean influence in Chol …………………………………….... 7
1.5.2. Contact among Yukatekan and Cholan ……………………………...… 12
1.6. Writing system …………………………………………………………………... 13
1.7. Pedagogical materials …………………………………………………………… 14
1.8. Previous linguistic studies on Chol ……………………………………………… 15
1.9. Grammatical overview …………………………………………………………... 18
1.9.1. Some phonological characteristics …………………………………..… 18
1.9.2. Word/root classes and morphological typology …………………..…… 19
1.9.3. Constituent order and verb initial features …………………………….. 21
1.9.4. Alignment………………………………………………………………. 25
1.9.5. Object marking ………………………………………………………… 28
1.10. The data and methodology ……………………………………………............... 30
II. Phonology and morphophonemics …………………………………………...… 34
2.1. Phonemic inventory and orthography …………………………………………… 42
2.1.1. Consonants.…………………………………………………………….. 34
2.1.2. Vowels…………………………………………………………………. 40
viii
2.1.3. Practical orthography ………………………………………………...... 42
2.2. Stress …………………………………………………………………………….. 43
2.3. The syllabic pattern ……………………………………………………………… 46
2.4. Phonological and morphological processes ……………………………………... 47
2.4.1. Reduplication ………………………………………………………….. 47
2.4.2. Assimilation …………………………………………………………… 49
2.4.3. Vowel harmony ………………………………………………………... 50
2.4.4. Metathesis ……………………………………………………………... 50
2.4.5. Epenthesis ……………………………………………………………... 51
2.4.6. Elision …………………………………………………………………. 54
2.4.7. Geminate consonants ………………………………………………….. 58
2.4.8. a → ä …………………………………………………………………... 59
2.4.9. Dissimilation: ch → x …………………………………………………. 59
2.4.10. x → j ………………………………………………………………….. 60
III. Morphology ……………………………………………………………………... 61
3.1. Roots and words …………………………………………………………………. 61
3.2. Affixes ……………………………………………………………………............ 64
3.3. Clitics ……………………………………………………………………………. 67
3.4. A note on perfective and imperfective aspect markers ………………………….. 70
3.5. Compounding and nominal incorporation ………………………………………. 71
IV. Person and number markers …………………………………………………... 74
4.1. Person markers and their functions ……………………………………………… 74
4.1.1. Set A or ergative person markers ……………………………………… 74
4.1.2. Set B or absolutive person markers ……………………………………. 78
4.2. Plural markers …………………………………………………………………… 80
4.2.1. The plural marker -tyak …………………………………………........... 86
V. Word/root classes and affixes …………………………………………………… 90
5.1. Verbs …………………………………………………………………………….. 90
ix
5.1.1. Transitive roots ………………………………………………………... 91
a. CVC transitive roots …………………………………………….…. 91
b. Derived transitive verbs …………………………………………… 95
c. Irregular verbs ……………………………………………………... 99
5.1.2. Intransitive verbs ………………………………………………………. 101
a. Non-agentives ………………………………………………....…… 101
b. Agentive intransitives …………………………………...………… 103
c. Ambivalent intransitives …………………………………...……… 110
d. Ambitransitives ……………………………………………...…….. 110
5.2. Nouns …………………………………………………………………...........….. 113
5.2.1. Classification by possession ………………………………………...…. 114
5.2.2. Simple, compound, and complex nouns ……………………………..... 117
a. Simple nouns ………………………………………...…………….. 118
b. Derived nouns ……………………………………………...……… 118
c. Compound and complex nouns ……………………………...…….. 120
5.2.3. Affixes on nouns …………………………………………………………...….. 122
5.3. Adjectives ………………………………………………………………………... 125
5.3.1. Derived adjectives ……………………………………………...……… 129
5.4. The positional roots ……………………………………………………...………. 130
5.5. Affect words ……………………………………………………………...……… 135
5.6. Adverbs …………………………………………………………………..……… 138
5.6.1. Manner adverbs …………………………………………………...…… 138
5.6.2. Locative adverbs ……………………………………………………..... 141
5.6.3. Temporal adverbs ……………………………………………………… 142
5.7. Closed word classes ……………………………………………………………... 145
5.7.1. Prepositions ……………………………………………………………. 145
5.7.2. Relational nouns ……………………………………………….............. 147
5.7.3. Pronouns ……………………………………………………….............. 151
5.7.4. Existential ……………………………………………………………… 157
5.7.5. Numerals……………………………………………………….............. 158
5.7.6. Numeral classifiers and measure words ……………………………….. 160
x
