Tojolab'al language
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| Tojolabal Tojolabal |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Mexico | |
| Region: | Southeast Chiapas | |
| Total speakers: | approx. 20,000 | |
| Language family: | Mayan Kanjobalan-Chujean Chujean Tojolabal |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | myn | |
| ISO 639-3: | toj | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Tojolabal is a Mayan language spoken in Chiapas, Mexico. It is related to the Chuj language spoken in Guatemala. Tojolabal is spoken especially in the departments of the Chiapanecan Colonia of Las Margaritas by about 20,000 people.
The name Tojolabal derives from the phrase /tohol/ /ab'al/, meaning "right language". 19th century documents sometimes refer to the language and its speakers as "Chaneabal" (meaning "four languages", possibly a reference to the four Mayan languages -- Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, and Chuj -- spoken in the Chiapas highlands and nearby lowlands along the Guatemala border).
Anthropologist Carlos Lenkersdorf has claimed several linguistic and cultural features of the Tojolabal, primarily the language's ergativity shows that they do not give cognitive weight to the distinctions subject/object, active/passive. This is a version of the controversial Sapir-Worf hypothesis.
[edit] References
- Lenkersdorf, Carlos (1996). Los hombres verdaderos. Voces y testimonios tojolabales. Lengua y sociedad, naturaleza cite y cultura, artes y comunidad cósmica. Mexico City: Siglo XXI. ISBN 968-23-1998-6.
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