Ch’ol is member of the Cholan branch of the Mayan language family. It is spoken in the north central part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. There are two main dialects of Ch’ol: Ch’ol of Tila and Ch’ol of Timbalá. The former is spoken by about 43,870 people in the villages of Tila, Vicente Guerrero, Chivalito and Limar in Chiapas. The latter has about 90,000 speakers in the villages of Tumbalá, Sabanilla, Misijá, Limar, Chivalita and Vicente Guerrero.
Ch’ol is also known as Chol, Lak t’an, Lak ty’añ. It is closely related to Ch'orti', which is spoken in Guatemala and Honduras, and to Chontal Maya, which is spoken in Tabasco in Mexico. These languages are the most conservative of Mayan languages, and are thought to be the closest to Classical Maya.
There are some programs in Ch’ol in a radio station in Xpujil in Campeche. Ch’ol is used as a medium of instruction in the first years of some primary schools.
This alphabet for Ch’ol was develped by Diaz Peñate and first proposed in 1992. It was adopted by writers, teachers and linguists in 2010 under the auspices of INALI (Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas).
There are several other ways to write Ch’ol. The most noticable difference is the use of the letter ʌ for the /ɨ/ sound.
Download alphabet charts for Ch’ol (Excel)
Some details provided by Michael Peter Füstumum
Information about Ch’ol | Numbers | Tower of Babel
Information about Ch’ol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch’ol_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch’ol
http://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/ArchiveHTML/Chol/chol.htm
http://www.native-languages.org/chol.htm
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ctu
http://www.sorosoro.org/en/chol/
https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/2625
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/ETD-UT-2011-08-4293
Achi, Akatek, Awakatek, Chontal Maya, Ch’ol, Chorti, Chuj, Huasteco, Itzaʼ, Ixil, Jakaltek, Kaqchikel, Ki'che', Lacandon, Mam, Mocho’, Mopan, Poqomam, Poqomchiʼ, Q’anjob’al, Q'eqchi', Sakapultek, Sipakapense, Tektitek, Tojolabal, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tz'utujil, Uspantek, Yucatec Maya
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 20.04.24
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