Syntax and morphology of San Sebastián Coatán Chuj, a Mayan language of Guatemala Open Access

Abstract

This thesis provides a description of the grammar of the San Sebastián Coatán (SSC) variety of Chuj. Chuj is a Mayan language spoken in Huehuetenango, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. The Mayan language family has shown extensive microvariation and a number of notable characteristics, urging study of its languages. Though there are numerous papers on Mayan languages, many are outdated or limited, and therefore there is a need for further investigation.

Furthermore, there are no in-depth studies of SSC Chuj; previous studies on Chuj focus on the San Mateo Ixtatán (SMI) dialect. I compare my findings to papers on SMI Chuj and other Mayan languages. Several differences can be observed between the two dialects, suggesting that study of SSC Chuj is lacking in order to obtain a complete account of the language.

The participants in my research are four bilingual speakers of Spanish and SSC Chuj. They grew up in San Sebastián Coatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala and currently reside in Seymour, Indiana. I have collected my data in elicitation sessions, in which I ask participants to translate utterances from Spanish to Chuj. I have also recorded three spontaneous speech samples. In these, I prompt a partipicant to talk about a specific topic, then transcribe it and work with the participant to translate it.

In this thesis, I discuss the main characteristics of Mayan languages and their presence in Chuj. Next, I describe basic sentence structure in both dialects of Chuj. Then, I examine two topics especially worthy of further study: negation and imperatives. I find a notable difference in negation in SSC and SMI Chuj. Imperatives introduce an issue with absolutive markers requiring additional investigation.

This thesis is divided into the following sections: I. Introduction, II. Language background, III. Methods, IV. Grammar overview, V. Negation, VI. Imperatives, and VII. Conclusions and directions for future research. I include the transcription of one spontaneous speech sample in the appendix.

I hope to bring awareness to SSC Chuj as more distant from SMI Chuj than previously assumed. Future research should focus on further investigation of grammar as well as comparing SSC to SMI Chuj demographically.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

I. Introduction..................................................................................................................................1

II. Language background.................................................................................................................2

III. Methods......................................................................................................................................4

IV. Grammar overview....................................................................................................................6

           A. Sound inventory and orthography...................................................................................7

           B. Word order......................................................................................................................8

           C. Predicate types.................................................................................................................9

           D. Aspect markers..............................................................................................................10

           E. Ergative-absolutive person markers..............................................................................13

           F. Noun classifiers.............................................................................................................16

V. Negation....................................................................................................................................20

           A. Negation in SSC Chuj...................................................................................................20

           B. Negation in SMI Chuj...................................................................................................22

           C. Other Mayan languages.................................................................................................25

VI. Imperatives..............................................................................................................................27

           A. Affirmative imperatives................................................................................................27

           B. Negative imperatives.....................................................................................................29

           C. Other Mayan languages.................................................................................................31

VII. Conclusions and directions for future research......................................................................32

Appendix........................................................................................................................................34

References......................................................................................................................................38

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Spanish and Linguistics
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Modern Language, Linguistics
Keyword	Non-verbal predicate Verb-initial Descriptive grammar Negation Grammar Latin America Ergative-absolutive Linguistic elicitation Morphology Imperatives Mexico Understudied language Language variation Field linguistics Central America Language status Mayan language Elicitation Noun class Indigenous language Ejective consonants Negative imperative Microvariation Mayan Syntax Hispanic Guatemala Huehuetenango Suppletion Linguistic field work Surrogate imperative Dialectology Chuj
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Marjorie Pak, Emory University
Committee Members	Erin Bonning , Emory University H. Robyn Clarke , Emory University

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Supplemental Files

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	Lexicon Elicitation Excerpt (A short excerpt of an elicitation session with a Chuj consultant )	2020-04-13 14:03:58 -0400	Press to Select an action Download
	Spontaneous Speech Excerpt (A short excerpt of a sample of spontaneous Chuj speech )	2020-04-13 14:04:02 -0400	Press to Select an action Download