From Valency to Aspect in the Ch'olan-Tzeltalan Family of Mayan (original) (raw)
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This paper applies an historical sociolinguistic approach (Romaine 1982) to the study of Classic Lowland Mayan (CLM) inscriptions. Such approach analyzes the spread of innovative linguistic variables through geographic and social space, over time. The paper, revisiting the case study first outlined in Mora-Marín (2011), applies a quantitative analysis to two examples of real-time change in CLM texts, the spread of -(a)wan and -(V)lel, to determine to what extent such spread exhibits a hierarchical geographic diffusion (Trudgill 1974; Chambers and Trudgill 1998), based on site size rankings (Brown and Witschey 2002), and whether their spread was interrelated, with positive results in both regards. In addition, implicational scaling (Bailey 1973; Bailey et al. 1993:368-372) is also employed to better understand the linguistic embedding of -(a)wan. The results point to a hierarchy of lexical and syntactic diffusion. The paper then revisits the comparative evidence from the postconquest Ch’olan languages, from a variationist perspective, resulting in a complex scenario: -(V)lel emerged in the western Maya lowlands (Chontal region); -(a)wan exhibits a more complex scenario, showing greater categoricization in the eastern Maya lowlands (Ch’orti’, but not Ch’olti’), followed by the western Maya lowlands (Chontal, but not Ch’ol), a pattern that could correlate with the close interaction between Copan and Palenque evident in CLM texts. In conclusion, a historical sociolinguistic approach offers scholars a chance to develop more realistic models of linguistic development and interaction than is possible through the exclusive application of the comparative method and family tree model alone.
Classic Mayan texts exhibit a variety of inflectional affixes that are used on positional roots, roots that refer to "positions, such as sitting, standing, or lying down, that objects or people can assume" (Bricker 1986:160). MacLeod (1984) was the first to demonstrate the presence of positional verbal morphology in Classic Mayan texts. She identified two suffixes, transcribed as -la-ja ~ -la-ji-ya and -wa-ni ~ -wa-niya, and she argued that the first represented Yukatekan -laj, a completive status suffix of positionals, while the second represented the Ch'olan positional suffix -wan, which she suggested had roughly the same function as Yukatekan -laj (1984:241, 247-248). Since then, various authors have contributed to the study of the functions, distribution, and history of these two suffixes in Classic Mayan texts (Justeson 1985,
A ch'olti'an explanation for ch'orti'an grammar: a postlude to the language of the Classic Maya
Mayab, 1998
In the Mayan classificatory tradition, the Ch'olti' language, as recorded in the 1695 grammar of Pedro Morán, is generally held to be related to but separate from the modern language of Ch'orti' (see Kaufman's 1976 classification, for example). Ch'olti' is said to be extinct, having no descendent daughter languages in modern times. This paper aims to show that Ch'orti' is «extinct» in the same way that Colonial Kaqchikel or Elizabethan English are extinct: they were spoken at an earlier time, but they are not dead, for both have continued through time and are spoken today in their descendent forms. The data presented here suggest that minimally, Ch'orti' is the modern descendent of Ch'olti'; or, at most, that ancestral Ch'olti' and Ch'olti' were mere dialects of each other, as say, Southern and Standard American English are dialects of each other. The evidence supporting this assertion grows out of a careful comparison of the grammatical paradigms of Colonial Ch'olti'an and modern Ch'orti'an, which reveals that the particulars of Ch'olti'an grammar offer the best (and probably only) hypothesis by which the unique characteristics of modern Ch'orti'an grammar can be explained. It is by comparative-historical explanation that the connection between Ch'olti' and Ch'orti' is best established. Specifically, I will first show that the appearance of a new set of Ch'orti'an pronouns can only derive from the Ch'olti'an grammatical system. I will then give evidence that the negative future marker attested in Ch'orti' is the reflex of a future marker in Ch'olti'. Finally, I will give a series of morphemes that are unique to the two languages. These facts taken together argue persuasively that Ch'orti' descends from Ch'olti'. CH'ORTI' PRONOMINALS One of the unresolved linguistic questions in Mayan linguistics is the fact that Ch'orti' has three pronominal sets, whereas Mayan languages generally have only two such sets. The provenance of Ch'orti's newly formed, third pronominal set has never been successfully explained. It is precisely the explanation, given herewith, that secures the Ch'olti'-Ch'orti' relationship. The normal pronominal distribution for Common Mayan is typologically ERGATIVE and ABSOLUTIVE, with the functional distribution as follows: ERGATIVE signals the subject of transitives and the possessive pronoun, whereas ABSOLUTIVE references the subject of intransitives and the object of transitives, as shown in the following Kaqchikel examples: ERG: Subj Tr Poss Pr x-qa-kamisaj qa-bi COMPL-ERG1PL-kill ERG1PL-name 'we killed him.' 'our name' ABS: Subj Intr Obj Tr x-oj-war x-oj-a-kamisaj COMPL-ABS1PL-sleep COMPL-ABS1PL-ERG2SG-kill 'we slept.' 'you killed us.' In some languages, however, the above schema is complicated by split-ergativity, where the ERGATIVE pronoun marks intransitive verbs in the INCOMPLETIVE aspect, while the ABSOLUTIVE is found in the COMPLETIVE, as shown below:
Morphosyntactic features of progressive in the K'iche'an languages of the Mayan family
Sychev, R. (2021). Morphosyntactic features of progressive in the K’iche’an languages of the Mayan family. Open Linguistics, 7(1), 594-612., 2021
The article deals with the morphosyntactic features of the aspectual category of progressive in K'iche'an languages. The analysis is carried out using methods of intragenetic typology. It is proposed to clarify Vinogradov's classification of progressive in the Mayan languages in relation to the K'iche'an group. Three types of K'iche'an progressive as well as three strategies for the distribution of ergative-absolutive markers in the progressive are proposed. The boundary between the uniclausal and biclausal analyses of complex aspect constructions in Mayan languages is proposed. The application to K'iche'an languages Robert Dixon's generalization for aspectually based split ergativity is also described. Three strategies of verb argument marking in the progressive constructions are determined. It was found out that all aspectually conditioned splits in the ergative-absolutive strategy of argument marking in K'iche'an languages are observed in progressive (or historically progressive) constructions.
In this paper I examine comparative data on the applicative -b'e suffix and its related syntax (including antidative constructions) in Mayan languages in order to contribute to their reconstruction. I present evidence in favor of a Proto-Mayan reconstruction of an applicative construction that optionally focused instruments, locatives, and addressees, and a Proto-Central-Mayan (Eastern and Western Mayan) reconstruction of the -b'e suffix. I discuss the possible sequence of events in the history of the applicative and related constructions from Proto-Mayan to the descendant subgroups, including the Greater Tzeltalan subgroup, thought by most linguists and epigraphers to constitute the basis of the language represented in Classic Lowland Mayan hieroglyphic texts. I then hypothesize on possible scenarios that can be tested against the evidence from Classic Lowland Mayan texts.