Chontal Maya language

Chontal Maya
Yoko ochoco
Native to Mexico
Region North central and southern Tabasco
Ethnicity Chontal Maya
Native speakers
 36,810 (2010 census)[1]
Mayan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 chf
Glottolog taba1266[2]

Chontal Maya, also known as Yoko ochoco and Acalan, is a Maya language of the Cholan family spoken by the Chontal Maya people of the Mexican state of Tabasco. Chontal Maya is spoken in Nacajuca, Centla, El Centro, Jonuta, and Macuspana. There are at least three dialects, identified as Tamulté de las Sábanas Chontal, Buena Vista Chontal, and Miramar Chontal.

Distribution

The Chontal Maya are concentrated in 159 settlements in 5 municipalities of Tabasco (Brown 2005:122).

Some Chontal settlements near the town of Nacajuca include (Brown 2005:116):

  • El Tigre
  • Saloya
  • Guatacaloa
  • Olcuatitan
  • Tucta
  • Mazatehuapa
  • Tapotzingo
  • Guaytalpa
  • San Simón
  • Tecoluta
  • Oxiacapue
  • Guadalupe
  • El Sitio
  • Tamulte

Some Chontal settlements in the northeastern Centla region include (Brown 2005:116):

  • Cuauhtemoc
  • Vicente Guerrero
  • Allende
  • Simón Sarlat
  • Quitin Arauz (on the Río Usumacinta)

Chontal settlements near Macuspana include Benito Juárez and Aquiles Serdan (Brown 2005).

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
glottalized pʼ tʼ kʼ
voiced b d
Affricate voiceless ts tʃ
glottalized tsʼ tʃʼ
Fricative s ʃ h
Tap/Flap ɾ
Lateral l
Nasal m n
Approximant w j

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e o
Open a

[3]

References

  1. ↑ INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tabasco Chontal". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Keller, Kathryn C.; Luciano G., Plácido (1997). Diccionario Chontal de Tabasco.

Brown, Denise Fay. 2005. "The Chontal Maya of Tabasco." In Sandstrom, Alan R., and Enrique Hugo García Valencia. 2005. Native peoples of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

  • Keller, Kathryn C. and Plácido Luciano G., compilers. 1997. Diccionario Chontal de Tabasco.


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