{"id":55140,"date":"2011-08-26T03:34:01","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T01:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?page_id=55140"},"modified":"2011-08-26T03:34:01","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T01:34:01","slug":"chol","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/chol\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch’ol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data collected by UNICEF<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Data on the Ch\u2019ol language<\/h5>\n

Alternative names<\/strong>: Chol, Lak t\u2019an, Lak ty\u2019a\u00f1<\/p>\n

Note: The origin of the term Ch\u2019ol<\/em> isn\u2019t clear. It is a possible reference to the root ch\u2019ol<\/em> as in the word \u00ab\u00a0corn\u00a0\u00bb. Lak ty\u2019a\u00f1<\/em> refers to the self-designation (which may be translated by \u00ab\u00a0our language\u00a0\u00bb).<\/p>\n

Main dialects<\/strong>: There are three main Ch\u2019ol dialectal groups, according to Coon (2004): Sabanilla Ch\u2019ol, Tumbala Ch\u2019ol, and Tila Ch\u2019ol. The latter can also be divided into two dialectal subgroups: North and South. These variants are mutually understandable, though the differences are clear and acknowledged by the speakers. The Tila dialect is the one that has been studied the most. Other sources only recognize two main dialectal groups, with no distinction between Tumbala and Sabanilla Ch\u2019ol (which is the case of the Ethnologue<\/em>, 16th edition).<\/p>\n

Classification<\/strong>: Mayan language family<\/a>, Ch\u2019ol branch<\/p>\n

Geographic\u00a0area<\/strong>: Mexico, in the highlands of northeastern Chiapas. Mainly in the localities of Tila, Tumbal\u00e1, Sabanilla, Catazaj\u00e1, La Libertad, Salto de Agua, Palenque, Ocosingo, Yajal\u00f3n, Huitiup\u00e1n and Chil\u00f3n. Some speakers are said to be found in the state of Tabasco.<\/p>\n

Number of speakers<\/strong>: A 2005 census accounted for 185,299 people who declared themselves Ch\u2019ol. A very large majority of these is believed to speak the language. Estimates of the number of speakers generally reach over 100,000. Ethnologue.com<\/em> mentions around 140,000 speakers.<\/p>\n

There could be a high number of monolingual Ch\u2019ol speakers (perhaps 50,000, according to Ethnologue.com<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Language status<\/strong>: In Mexico, Spanish is the official language de facto, although just like the other indigenous languages of the country, Ch\u2019ol has a status of \u00ab\u00a0national language\u00a0\u00bb, which in theory grants the language generic protection.<\/p>\n

According to Linguam\u00f3n<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0The country has established highly extensive legislation on its indigenous languages. The most noteworthy text in that respect is the General Law on the Language Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Ley General de Derechos Ling\u00fc\u00edsticos de los Pueblos Ind\u00edgenas<\/em>). In force since 2002, the law in question is geared to recognising and protecting the individual and collective language rights of Mexico’s native communities, and to nurturing the promotion, use and development of the country’s indigenous tongues, which enjoy the status of ‘national languages’. In reality, however, Mexico’s language policy tends more towards assimilation than the promotion of native tongues and cultures.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Media<\/strong>: The language is present is certain local media. XEXPUJ radio includes a few hours of broadcast in Ch\u2019ol.<\/p>\n

Education<\/strong>: Education is carried out in Ch\u2019ol during the first years of primary school, followed by a gradual shift to Spanish, which then becomes the only language of education.<\/p>\n

Vitality & Transmission<\/strong>: Ch\u2019ol does not stand among the languages deemed as \u00ab\u00a0endangered\u00a0\u00bb by UNESCO.<\/p>\n

Transmission is carried out. The language is used daily within the communities, and most particularly in rural areas. There is a significant proportion of monolinguals (especially elders and people who have not been to school). However, the language is losing momentum in the urban areas.<\/p>\n

The younger generations are usually Ch\u2019ol\/Spanish bilinguals; and Spanish is usually viewed as the language of prestige. Ch\u2019ol is often associated with negative representations for these generations, and the chances are high that, with the accelerating rural-urban migration, the future generations might stop transmitting their language.<\/p>\n

\n

Historic & ethnographic observations<\/h5>\n

From a historic point of view, Ch\u2019ol is associated with the state-city of Palenque (5th-9th century AD), of the classical Maya civilization. To a large extent, linguists wouldn\u2019t have been able to decipher the Maya writing system if it wasn\u2019t for Ch\u2019ol.<\/p>\n

Urban centers such as Palenque were abandoned around the 10th century, for reasons that are still under debate nowadays. Nevertheless, the Ch\u2019ol population did not disappear. Communities got smaller and more centered on farming, but the Mayan Ch\u2019ol language and culture was still very much alive when the Spanish conquistadors launched the conquest of today\u2019s Mexico.<\/p>\n

The Spanish colonization generated a drastic decrease of the Amerindian population, mainly because of viruses imported from Europe. Yet the Ch\u2019ol showed a strong resistance to colonization, and suffered violent \u00ab\u00a0pacification\u00a0\u00bb in the course of the 17th century; the communities were occupied and relocated one after the other. Thus the surviving Ch\u2019ol population, originally from the lowlands, was forced to relocate in the highlands of Chiapas, in the present regions of Tila and Tumbala.<\/p>\n

See Josserand & Hopkins (1996) and Coon (2004) for further information on the Ch\u2019ol people.<\/p>\n

\n

Sources<\/h5>\n

D\u00edaz Couder Ernesto (2010). \u00ab\u00a0M\u00e9xico\u00a0\u00bb In \u00ab\u00a0Atlas socioling\u00fc\u00edstico de pueblos ind\u00edgenas en Am\u00e9rica Latina\u00a0\u00bb, UNICEF. Tome 2, pp 889- 916.<\/p>\n

\n

Online sources<\/h5>\n

Page devoted to Ch\u2019ol on the Linguam\u00f3n<\/em> website <\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Additional bibliography<\/h5>\n

Coon, Jessica L. 2004. Roots and Words in Chol (Mayan): A Distributed Morphology Approach<\/em>. Bachelor Thesis. Reed College, Portland. [Online<\/a>]<\/p>\n

GRINEVALD, C. 2007 \u00abEndangered Languages of Mexico and Central America\u00bb, in Brenzinger, M. (\u00e9d.), Language Diversity Endangered<\/em>, Trends in Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin-New York.<\/p>\n

Josserand, J. K. & Hopkins, N. A. 1996. Chol ritual language. FAMSI. [Online<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\n

Please visit the Atlas socioling\u00fc\u00edstico de pueblos ind\u00edgenas en Am\u00e9rica Latina<\/a><\/em> for a more comprehensive bibliography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data collected by UNICEF Data on the Ch\u2019ol language Alternative names: Chol, Lak t\u2019an, Lak ty\u2019a\u00f1 Note: The origin of the term Ch\u2019ol isn\u2019t clear. It is a possible reference to the root ch\u2019ol as in the word \u00ab\u00a0corn\u00a0\u00bb. Lak ty\u2019a\u00f1 refers to the self-designation (which may be translated by \u00ab\u00a0our language\u00a0\u00bb). Main dialects: There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-55140","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nCh'ol - Sorosoro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/chol\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ch'ol - Sorosoro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Data collected by UNICEF Data on the Ch\u2019ol language Alternative names: Chol, Lak t\u2019an, Lak ty\u2019a\u00f1 Note: The origin of the term Ch\u2019ol isn\u2019t clear. It is a possible reference to the root ch\u2019ol as in the word \u00ab\u00a0corn\u00a0\u00bb. 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