Last updated: 2020-02-28
COMPROMISED: suspect marking of glottal stops; uncertainty surrounding the orthography (the Crúbadán corpus includes symbols not present in the alphabet)
Background
Language Family: Mayan / Quichean-Mamean / Greater Quichean / Quichean / Tzutujil
- Tz’utujil is spoken in Guatemala.
Phonology
Consonants
- /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ appear in loanwords (Dayley 1985, 107:22).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Uvular
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Glottal
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Stops
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p pʼ
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t tʼ
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k kʼ
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q qʼ
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ʔ
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Affricates
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ts tsʼ
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tʃ tʃʼ
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Fricatives
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s
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ʃ
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χ
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Nasals
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m
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n
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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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w
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l
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are ejective.
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Vowels
- Vowel length is contrastive in Tz’utujil (Dayley 1985, 107:25). Long vowels are represented by duplicate graphemes.
- Diphthongs /ie/ and /uo/ are said to be present in the Santiago Atitlan dialect (Dayley 1985, 107:27).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
- Note: /tʼ/ is not represented in the Crúbadán corpus.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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b’
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/pʼ/
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d’
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/tʼ/
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e
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/e/
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i
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/i/
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j
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/χ/
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k
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/k/
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k’
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/kʼ/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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q
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/q/
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q’
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/qʼ/
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r
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/r/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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x
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/ʃ/
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y
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/j/
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’
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/ʔ/
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Digraph
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ch
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/tʃ/
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ch’
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/tʃʼ/
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tz
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/ts/
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tz’
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/tsʼ/
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Lenition Rules
- /pʼ/ and /tʼ/ become voiced and implosive preceding vowels (Dayley 1985, 107:15). Ejective /q/ may become voiced and implosive in the same environment, but it’s optional.
- /χ/ is realized as [h] syllable-internally (i.e. following a vowel and preceding a consonant) (Dayley 1985, 107:19).
Misc. Rules
- Word-initial vowels are often preceded by a phonetic glottal stop (Dayley 1985, 107:17–18).
- Some word-initial vowels are preceded by a phonemic glottal stop (Dayley 1985, 107:19), and it is unclear whether these are marked consistently, which compromises the language to some extent.
- /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/, /m/, and /n/ devoice word-finally (Dayley 1985, 107:20).
- /m/ and /n/ are also voiceless preceding consonants.
- Word-final /w/, /j/, /l/, and /r/ from Spanish loanwords contrast with the same consonants in native words, due to the fact that the Spanish phonemes don’t undergo the same devoicing rule that the native phonemes do (Dayley 1985, 107:23). This is only specific to the Santiago Atitlan dialect; in all other dialects, these Spanish phonemes fully assimilate to the native phonemes.
- /w/ is realized as [β] preceding front vowels (Dayley 1985, 107:21).
- /a/ varies freely with /e/ in several words (Dayley 1985, 107:26).
References
Dayley, Jon P. 1985. Tzutujil Grammar. Vol. 107. University of California Publications in Linguistics. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press.