ABSTRACT

Ch’ol is a language of the greater Tseltalan branch of the Mayan language family, spoken today by around 200,000 people primarily in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chiapas (see Vázquez Álvarez 2011). Ch’ol, Chontal, and Ch’orti’ together constitute the Cholan subbranch. Ch’ol is generally divided into two main dialects: Tila and Tumbalá. See López López 2005 and Vázquez Álvarez 2011 on dialect variation. Ch’ol speakers refer to their language as Lak Ty’añ (‘our words’); Ch’ol is also spelled “Chol”, the choice being one largely of dialect (Ch’ol in Tumbalá, Chol in Tila). Though my own data comes primarily from Tila, I use Ch’ol here in keeping with the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI).