| Jakaltek | |
|---|---|
| Poptiʼ | |
| 'Abʼxubʼal | |
| Native to | Guatemala,Mexico |
| Region | Huehuetenango,Chiapas |
| Ethnicity | 54,200Jakaltek in Guatemala (2019 census) |
Native speakers | 33,000 (2019 census)[1] |
Mayan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Mexico |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | jac |
| Glottolog | popt1235 Poptiʼ |
| ELP | Jakalteko |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
TheJakaltek/hɑːkəlˈtɛk/[2] (Jacaltec) language, also known asJakalteko (Jacalteco) orPoptiʼ,[3] is aMayan language from theQ’anjob’alan-chujean branch spoken by theJakaltek people in some municipalities in the state of Chiapas, Mexico and the municipality ofJacaltenango in the department ofHuehuetenango, Guatemala in the border between both countries. Jakaltek is closely related with theQ'anjob'al andAkatek language and more distantly related with theTojol-ab'al,Chuj andMocho'.[4] In Mexico it is also known asAb'xub'al.
Jakaltek was the language spoken by the population of the site ofEl Lagartero, in the present daymunicipality of La Trinitaria in Chiapas, Mexico, the site was inhabited from 300 AD to 1400 AD between the late classic and postclassic period ofMesoamerica.[5]
In Mexico, Jakaltek is mainly spoken in the state of Chiapas in the communities of Bienestar Social, Flor de Mayo, Guadalupe Victoria, Ojo de Agua, Pacayalito and Huixquilar from the municipality ofAmatenango de la Frontera, in Los Pocitos from the municipality ofBella Vista, in El Mango, Frontera Comalapa and Sunzapote from the municipality ofFrontera Comalapa and in El Vergel Dos, La Campana, La Gloria, El Colorado and Nuevo Villaflores from the municipality ofLa Trinitaria. There are also Jakaltek communities in Campeche in the municipalities ofCampeche andChampotón.[6]
Municipalities in Huehuetenango where Jakaltek is spoken include the following (Variación Dialectal en Poptiʼ, 2000).
The Eastern Jakaltek language includes the followingphonemes. The orthography used by theAcademia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala is on the left, the other main orthography is on the right.
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ŋ⟨nh or n̈/ŋ⟩ | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | ts⟨tz⟩ | tʃ⟨ch⟩ | tʂ⟨tx⟩ | k⟨k or c/qu⟩ | q⟨q or k⟩ | ʔ⟨ʼ⟩ | |
| glottalized | ɓ⟨b or bʼ⟩ | tʼ⟨tʼ⟩ | tsʼ⟨tzʼ⟩ | tʃʼ⟨chʼ⟩ | tʂʼ⟨txʼ⟩ | kʼ⟨kʼ or cʼ/qʼu⟩ | qʼ⟨qʼ or kʼ⟩ | |||
| Fricative | f⟨f⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ʃ⟨xh or ẍ⟩ | ʂ⟨x⟩ | χ⟨j⟩ | h⟨h⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | w⟨w⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | |||||||
| Trill | r⟨r⟩ | |||||||||
It also has the vowels a/a/, e/e/, i/i/, o/o/, u/u/
Eastern Jakaltek is one of the few languages besides theMalagasy language ofMadagascar to make use of an n-trema character in its alphabet. In both languages, the n-trema represents avelar nasal consonant[ŋ] (like "ng" in "bang").
Jakaltek-language programming is carried by theINPI's radio stationXEVFS, broadcasting fromLas Margaritas, Chiapas.
The Jakaltek language has averb–subject–object syntax. Like manyNative American languages, Jakaltek has complexagglutinativemorphology and usesergative–absolutive case alignment. It is divided in two dialects, Eastern and Western Jakalteko. "Eastern and Western Jakalteko understand each other's spoken languages, but not written text."[7]
Jakaltek is unusual in that it has four systems of noun and numeral classifiers.[8]
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