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Contact among some Mayan languages: inferences from loanwords

January 2003
Anthropological Linguistics 45

Authors:

Søren Wichmann

Leiden University

Cecil H. Brown

Northern Illinois University

Possible Loanwords from Mayan Subgroups into Ixhil

…

Q'eqchii' Loans from Only One Source Other Than Tzeltalan or Huastecan

…

. Phonologically Identified Possible Loans in Chicomuceltec

…

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Trustees of Indiana University

Anthropological Linguistics

Contact among Some Mayan Languages: Inferences from Loanwords

Author(s): Søren Wichmann and Cecil H. Brown

Source:

Anthropological Linguistics,

Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 57-93

Published by: The Trustees of Indiana University on behalf of Anthropological Linguistics

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Contact among Some Mayan Languages: Inferences from Loanwords

SOREN

WICHMANN

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

and University

of Copenhagen

CECIL

H. BROWN

Northern

Illinois University

Abstract. Evidence

is assembled

showing

lexical interference

in three

Mayan

languages

(Ixhil,

Q'eqchii',

and

Chicomuceltec)

from other

Mayan

languages.

Inferences are made concerning sociolinguistic

contexts

possibly

underlying

borrowings.

This entails attention to semantic

domains into which loanwords

group.

It is difficult

to determine detailed

circumstances

for loans into Ixhil,

but a possible explanation

for them is marriage among Ixhilan men and

Q'anjob'alan

women. Loans into Q'eqchii'

mostly relate to influence from

neighboring

Lowland

Mayan

languages,

in particular

Ch'olti'.

Borrowings

into

Chicomuceltec

indicate cultural influence from immediately neighboring

groups.

1. Introduction. In the 1970s and 1980s, several studies of contact among

Mayan languages' were published (e.g., Kaufman 1976; Justeson et al. 1985;

Campbell 1988). Since then, the amount of available descriptive materials for

Mayan languages has increased significantly

so that now the time is ripe to take

a new look at the dynamics of Mayan linguistic diffusion.

An important objective

for undertaking such research is to determine patterns of linguistic interaction

among various groups in order to augment knowledge of their histories and

prehistories. Ultimately, this work will contribute

to the general historical lin-

guistics of the Mayan family by helping to sort diffused linguistic features from

inherited ones, an essential step in language reconstruction.

The scope of the present study is modest. It focuses on only three of the

thirty-one recorded Mayan languages-Ixhil (Mamean subgroup), Q'eqchii'

(K'ichee'an

subgroup),

and Chicomuceltec

(Huastecan subgroup)--determining

for each which words of their lexicons may have been loans from other Mayan

languages. This limited approach

is not intended to suggest that diffusion has

been less significant for other Mayan languages. Rather it should be viewed as

an early stage in dealing with Mayan linguistic diffusion in general. At this

point in our research, inter-Mayan linguistic diffusion

appears

to be substantial.

Certainly the best-known case of Mayan language interference to date is

that involving Ch'olan and Yucatecan languages of the Maya Lowlands.

These

languages, which are not particularly closely related genetically within the

Mayan family, have been shown to share a very large number of lexical items

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58 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

(Justeson et al. 1985:9-20; Kaufman and Norman 1984:145-47;

Witkowski and

Brown 1985), attesting to considerable linguistic interaction. Such interaction

probably relates in part to the well-established fact that speakers of both

Ch'olan and Yucatecan

languages were coparticipants

in Classic Maya civiliza-

tion. Epigraphic

studies (Lacadena

and Wichmann

2000, 2002; Wichmann

2002)

have established the geographic distributions of Classic period hieroglyphic

inscriptions written in, respectively, early varieties of Ch'olan and Yucatecan

languages. In addition,

the post-Classic

Mayan documents known as the Madrid

and Dresden codices have been found to manifest a peculiar mixture of Ch'olan

and Yucatecan languages (Lacadena 1997; Wald forthcoming).

The latter may

attest to the existence of a post-Classic lingua franca based on both Ch'olan and

Yucatecan languages. Given the robust tendency for lingua francas to underlie

formation of linguistic areas (Brown 1999:157, 161), a lowland lingua franca

might have facilitated the great amount of convergence between Ch'olan and

Yucatecan.

The Maya Lowlands almost certainly have witnessed different kinds of

contact situations during

different eras. For this region, sequencing

the different

periods and determining directions of the many borrowings, especially the

lexical ones, is a highly complex undertaking. A study of lexical borrowing

among Lowland

languages (i.e., Ch'olan and Yucatecan),

including

the relevant

epigraphic investigations, could assume the proportions

of a sizable monograph.

In contrast, in this study, direction of diffusion is more easily established

since, in almost all cases, we are dealing with unidirectional patterns-that is,

loans into each of the three languages treated. Q'eqchii', like languages of the

Maya Lowlands, stands out as a prolific

borrower from other Mayan languages.

Ixhil is probably

an average borrower

and the type of contact situation explain-

ing its borrowing

may be common

throughout

Mayan. Chicomuceltec

may be an

average borrower as well, but limited lexical sources for the language make it

difficult to confidently assess the magnitude of lexical diffusion into it.

We find that two general types of sociolinguistic context can account for

lexical diffusion involving the three languages dealt with here: (i) a situation of

cultural domination, where one language has special prestige within a given

area, resulting in diffusion from that language to another or other languages,

and (ii) a more local situation where diffusion takes place from one language to

another as a result of intimate interactional

events such as intergroup

marriage.

Our study differs

from

ones in the area of Mesoamerican

philology,

such as Campbell and Kaufman (1976) and Justeson et al. (1985), in that we

view the contact situation more from

the point of view of the borrowing

language

than from the point of view of the donor.

2. Methodology. Section 5, treating Chicomuceltec, derives from studies of

the Huastecan subgroup of Mayan that has engaged Brown for many years. The

sections on Ixhil and Q'eqchii' (sections 3 and 4) have grown out of a compara-

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2003 SOREN

WICHMANN

AND

CECIL H. BROWN 59

tive Mayan dictionary project begun in 2000 (Wichmann and Brown n.d.). At

this point, the dictionary includes more than 5,700 etyma reconstructed for

various stages of the development of Mayan languages and the accompanying

lexical sets on which reconstructions are based.

As lexical sets have been assembled for the dictionary,

skewed distributions

have become apparent. Mayan languages are sometimes found to share lexical

items with Mayan languages belonging to another subgroup

or other subgroups

but not with languages of their own subgroup.

(See figure 1 for a classification of

Mayan

languages.) Such skewed distributions

suggest that the items in question

have been diffused. For the cases examined here, Ixhil is found to share words

with Q'anjob'alan and Ch'olan languages that are not found in any of the

languages of the Eastern Mayan grouping

to which it belongs; Q'eqchii' shares

words with Greater

Q'anjob'alan

and languages of the Maya Lowlands

that are

not found in any Eastern Mayan language other than Q'eqchii'; and Chico-

muceltec shares words with its immediate Mayan-language neighbors that are

not found in its sister language, Huastec, the only other language of the

Huastecan subgroup.

We have isolated all lexical sets showing skewed distribution. Distribution

of an item can only suggest that it is a possible loan. More

definitive evidence is

where an item does not show expected phonological

changes for a language, but

instead conforms phonologically to expected forms in the supposed donor. We

have searched our database for all sets that include Ixhil, Q'eqchii',

and Chico-

muceltec words, looking for borrowings

that are revealed by phonology

in this

way. A third type of evidence is grammatical, which we do not treat in this

study. Ideally, diffusional investigations should be supplemented with gram-

matical data, but such an undertaking would exceed the scope of the present

study, and remains to be pursued at some later time.

3. Loans into Ixhil. The location of the Mamean language Ixhil is indicated

in map 1 (as language 21). Appendix B lists words in Ixhil that may have been

borrowed

into the language and also those Mayan languages that could have

donated them. Among the latter are all the Greater Q'anjob'alan

and Greater

Tzeltalan languages (Ch'olan,

Chujean,

Q'anjob'alan,

and Tzeltalan) plus mem-

bers of the Yucatecan and Huastecan subgroups.2

There are differences among

these languages with respect to the number of times a given language appears

on the list as possibly donating a term to Ixhil. For example, within the Ch'olan

subgroup, Ch'ol is represented eighteen times, Ch'orti' ten times, Chontal ten

times, and Ch'olti' six times. Such differences

among languages of this subgroup

do not strongly indicate that any one language has been significantly more influ-

ential as a donor to Ixhil than others within its subgroup. Furthermore, as we

shall see, phonological evidence indicates that in some cases loanwords may

have entered Ixhil in relatively early periods, when there was less differentia-

tion among subgroup languages.

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60 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

Proto-

Mayan

Huastecan

Yucatecan

Greater

Tzeltalan

Ch'olan

Tzeltalan

Chujea

Greater

Q'anjob'alan Q'anjob'alan

Mamnean

11-c=7

Eastern

Mayan

K'ichee'an

I, Huastec

2. Chicomuceltec

3. Yucatec

4. Lacandon

5. Mopan

6. Itzaj

7. Chontal

8. Ch'ol

9. Ch'orti'

10. Ch'olti'

11.

Tzotzil

12. Tzeltal

13.

Tojolab'al

14.

Chuj

15.

Q'anjob'al

16.

Akateko

17.

Jakalteko

18. Mocho'

19. Mam

20. Teko

21. Ixhil

22. Awakateko

23. Q'eqchii'

24. Uspanteko

25. Poqomchii'

26. Poqomam

27. Sakapulteko

28. Sipakapense

29. K'ichee'

30. Kaqchikel

31. Tz'utujil

Figure 1. The classification of the Mayan languages (adapted from Campbell and

Kaufman [1985:

fig. 1]).

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2003 SOREN

WICHMANN AND

CECIL

H. BROWN 61

3- S 7

10 11

13 4

12 23

;20J

17 16

14 15

21 .6~

u-*

247.

N 19

OR* 29

30 026

M26

t&.0

Map 1. The distribution of the extant Mayan languages (based on England [1994:22]).

Numbers refer to the numbered

language designations in figure 1.

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62 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

For our purposes, a more informative statistic is the number of times that any

member of a given subgroup appears.

This statistic for the six Mayan subgroups

is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Possible Loanwords from Mayan Subgroups into Ixhil

SUBGROUP NUMBER

Q'anjob'alan 35

Ch'olan 28

Chujean 19

Yucatecan 16

Tzeltalan 11

Huastecan 3

Even more informative,

as presented

in table 2, is a count of the number

of times

that languages of only one subgroup

could have contributed

a particular

word to

Ixhil-that is, where languages of that subgroup and Ixhil only share the

pertinent lexical item.

Table 2. Possible Loanwords into Ixhil with Only One Subgroup as the Source

SUBGROUP NUMBER

Q'anjob'alan 12

Ch'olan 6

Chujean 0

Tzeltalan 0

Huastecan 0

Yucatecan 0

This list indicates that the influence of the Chujean,

Tzeltalan, Huastecan, and

Yucatecan

groups

is insignificant.

Thus, every time one of the two top subgroups

in table 2 is represented to the exclusion of the other top subgroup,

then some

member language of the first subgroup may be assumed to be the donor. If we

apply this strategy of counting, excluding Chujean, Tzeltalan, Huastecan, and

Yucatecan altogether from consideration (even though some language or

languages of these groups may share items with Ixhil), we arrive at the figures

for loans attributable only to Q'anjob'alan

or only to Ch'olan in table 3.

Table 3. Ixhil Loanwords from Only Q'anjob'alan or Ch'olan

SUBGROUP NUMBER

Q'anjob'alan 20

Ch'olan 13

These figures suggest the degrees of responsibility for lexical interference in

Ixhil shown in table 4.

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2003 SOREN WICHMANN

AND CECIL

H. BROWN 63

Table 4. Responsibility for Lexical Loans in Ixhil

SUBGROUP PERCENTAGE

Q'anjob'alan 60.6%

Ch'olan 39.4%

Phonological analysis can shed light on the relative time periods in which

loans entered Ixhil. A number

of apparent

loans have entered Ixhil early enough

for them to have undergone phonological changes expected for the language.

Conceivably, such forms in reality are not borrowings but rather native Ixhil

forms

that happen to have survived in or to be attested for only Ixhil (as opposed

to other Eastern Mayan languages). Nevertheless, many of them must be true

loans, since, although we have little or no data for some of the Eastern lan-

guages, we do have ample sources for several including Q'eqchii,

K'ichee', Kaq-

chikel, and Mam. Thus, lack of data cannot generally explain why so many Ixhil

forms have no attested cognates in other Eastern Mayan languages.

Below, we point out borrowed forms that have been affected by two sound

changes in Ixhil.

In (1), an alveolar

consonant has become

palatalized after the time when the

word in which it is found entered Ixhil. (Languages showing forms closely simi-

lar, phonologically and semantically, to the borrowed

form are given in paren-

theses. See appendix

A for a list of language-name abbreviations.)

(1) luch'- 'to pinch' < *lut' (AKA,

TZE, CHL)

Palatalization of the glottalized alveolar stop t' after the high vowel u is a

regular change in Ixhil. In the example given, the geographically

close language

Akateko (Q'anjob'alan subgroup) is the most likely donor, suggesting that

palatalization of alveolar

stops in Ixhil could

be a relatively recent phenomenon,

having occurred

after Q'anjob'alan languages developed as distinct, individual

languages.

An Ixhil process, whose full extension has yet to be determined, in which

velar stops preceding

e are palatalized, is attested by the examples in (2a)-(2b).

(2a) chelem

'young' < *kelem (MOCH,

CHU,

TOJ,

TZE, Tzo, CHL,

YUC)

(2b) ch'em 'wild pig' < *k'em (AKA,

TZE, CHL)

In both instances, a Ch'olan language is represented among possible donors.

Given that Ixhil for at least several centuries has not been in direct contact with

speakers of Ch'olan languages, we would have to assume that if the forms ori-

ginate in Ch'olan, Ixhil must have borrowed them during a relatively early

period.

Conceivably, Ixhil has been borrowing

from other Mayan languages for a

long time. Kaufman (1974a) suggests a glottochronological

age of fourteen cen-

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64 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

turies for the separation of Ixhil-Awakateko from other Mamean languages.

Some of the Ch'olan loans could be of considerable age, possibly going back to

the Classic period (ca. 250-900 A.D.),

when the influence of Ch'olan on other

Mayan languages would have been at its peak. Dating some of the borrowings

a period

this early is not in disagreement with the glottochronological

estimate

for the Mamean split. Other

borrowings

seem to have been more recent.

The semantic content of loans into Ixhil suggests social circumstances

involved in diffusion. For example, some loans denote things associated with

high culture, indicating a situation entailing some especially privileged Mayan

language as a donor.

High-culture referents characterize a number of loans from Ch'olan lan-

guages into Ixhil. Among these, some refer to powerful animals that may have

had connections with myths: 'jaguar', 'eagle', 'black dog'. Some Ch'olan loans

refer to items of general importance,

such as 'cotton'. Finally, we see two topo-

nyms, ch'avuk' 'Hierba

Mora' and poptum 'Poptin'. The latter one is especially

interesting since the very same toponym occurs on a hieroglyphic inscription

from the Peten area. Unfortunately, we are able to locate neither the place

corresponding to the Ixhil toponym, nor that corresponding to the Classic

Ch'olan one. What is certain, however, is that the name that they share is

Ch'olan in origin. The etymological

sense is 'stone mat', but the meaning of the

two morphemes combined,

which is attested in the Ch'orti' dictionary of P6rez

Martinez et al. (1996), is 'slab'.

Given the high-culture content of these possible borrowings,

and that Ixhil

speakers today do not live in geographic proximity to speakers of Ch'olan lan-

guages, clearly diffusion of these items from Ch'olan

to Ixhil not only took place

quite early, but did so because of the cultural dominance of Ch'olan speakers

who were bearers of Classic Maya culture (ca. 250-900 A.D.). (We shall not

attempt to classify the remaining Ch'olan borrowings [see appendix B] into

semantic domains, and thus we refrain from

trying to explain the social circum-

stances surrounding

diffusion of these additional items.)

In table 5, we identify semantic domains that stand out among the remain-

ing supposedly

non-Ch'olan loans into Ixhil, that is, those that are not uniquely

attested in Ch'olan. These possible borrowings,

or at least the majority

of them,

probably

come from

Greater Q'anjob'alan

languages. We include forms that are

attested in Ch'olan as well as Greater

Q'anjob'alan,

and we make no attempt to

distinguish between Chujean and Q'anjob'alan as possible donors. More than

half of these other borrowings defy straightforward semantic categorization,

since they either belong to too-scantily represented semantic classes or have

such general meanings that it is difficult to fit them into semantic classes that

would correspond in obvious ways to particular cultural domains. Semantic

categories that we are interested in isolating should have some relation to a

specific cultural domain if we are to use them for forming hypotheses concerning

sociolinguistic situations that gave rise to linguistic influence.

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2003 SOREN WICHMANN

AND

CECIL H. BROWN 65

Table 5. Semantic Domains Prominent in Non-Ch'olan Loans

PLANTS b'ob'a kind of tree' (SP

'palo de esponja'),

chulub'"oak',

pa'ich 'tomato'

ANIMALS

b'o'lay 'a dangerous snake from the coast', uch 'wild dove'

WOMEN

lol 'female sexual organ', a amool 'adulterous woman'

NAMES ch'e'n 'Stone (surname)'

Within the "animals" group the term b'o'lay is notable because it refers to a

creature whose habitat corresponds

to a coastal zone. The diffusion of this word

is almost certainly due to the encounter of Ixhil speakers with speakers of

Greater Q'anjob'alan

languages who may have had better access than Ixhilans

to the lowlands and to coastal or riverine zones, if the present-day location of

speakers is any indication. We suspect that for a long time, perhaps centuries,

Ixhil speakers maintained contact and exchange with their various Greater

Q'anjob'alan neighbors, especially Akatekos and Q'anjob'ales. It is possible,

although not provable, that an intimate kind of contact, such as intermarriage

among Ixhil men and Greater

Q'anjob'alan

women,

may have contributed to the

lexical diffusion.3

4. Loans into Q'eqchii'. Location of speakers of the K'ichee'an language

Q'eqchii'

is indicated

in map 1 (as language 23). Possible loans into Q'eqchii'

are

presented in appendix C. Among borrowings

into the language identifiable by

phonological criteria, some should show a uvular stop (q or q') if they were

directly inherited from Proto-Mayan,

but nevertheless show a velar stop (k or

k). These forms are clearly loans from Mayan languages that underwent the

shift *q/q' > k/k', a phonological

change that pertained

to Tzeltalan, Huastecan,

Chujean, and the Lowland languages, but not to Eastern Mayan languages

including, of course, Ixhil (Campbell 1984: table 2). Examples, four of which

were previously noted by Justeson et al. (1985:10), include those in table 6.

Table 6. Q'eqchii' Loanwords That Have Undergone the Shift *q/q'

> k'

aakan 'to groan'

chakmut 'great curassow'

chakti' 'cichlid'

saklun 'clay'

lukum 'intestinal worm'

k'aan 'wedge'

k'aayk 'to become accustomed to'

mek'- 'to embrace forcefully'

For instance, forms related to k'aan in Q'anjob'alan

and Mam show q', whereas

other languages have k'.

Additionally, we have an example of a Q'eqchii' form in (3) that has

undergone the shift *ng > n, which is characteristic of the Lowland languages,

Tzeltalan, Q'anjob'al, Akateko, and Tojolab'al. If this form were inherited

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66 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO.

directly, we would have expected a j, which in Q'eqchii',

as in all other Eastern

Mayan languages, is the regular reflex of Proto-Mayan

*ng.

(3) nat'-'to squeeze,

press,

etc.'

Such borrowings identifiable by phonological criteria represent straight-

forward evidence that Q'eqchii'

was affected

by linguistic interference.

Both of the two sound changes mentioned, *q/q'> k/k' and *ng > n, charac-

terize most of the non-Eastern Mayan languages, so examples listed in (2)-(3)

are not especially helpful in determining precise origins of diffused forms. To do

so, we follow the same kind of statistical analysis used in the preceding

section

treating loans into Ixhil.

Presented in table 7 is the number of times that one or more members of a

given subgroup appear as candidates for having donated loans to Q'eqchii'

(appendix C).

Table 7. Possible Loans into Q'eqchii'

SUBGROUP NUMBER

Ch'olan 108

Yucatecan 58

Tzeltalan 47

Q'anjob'alan 40

Chujean 39

Huastecan 10

The number of cases in which just one subgroup could have been a donor is

shown in table 8.

Table 8. Possible Loans in Q'eqchii' Derivable from Only One Source Subgroup

SUBGROUP NUMBER

Ch'olan 30

Yucatecan 6

Q'anjob'alan 6

Chujean 1

Tzeltalan 0

Huastecan 0

Assuming from table 8 that Tzeltalan and Huastecan are not relevant as contri-

butors, a further refinement gives additional points to a subgroup when only

languages of that subgroup

and Tzeltalan or Huastecan or both show a pertinent

item. Figures for the revised count with percentages representing the relative

degrees to which each subgroup may be responsible for the lexical interference

in Q'eqchii' are shown in table 9.

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2003 SOREN

WICHMANN

AND

CECIL H. BROWN 67

Table 9. Q'eqchii' Loans from Only One Source Other Than Tzeltalan or

Huastecan

SUBGROUP NUMBER PERCENTAGE

Ch'olan 39 68.4%

Q'anjob'alan 7 12.3%

Yucatecan 6 10.5%

Chujean 5 8.8%

Aggregating percentages for Ch'olan and Yucatecan yields a total Lowland-

language percentage of 78.9 percent (= 68.4 + 10.5). A total percentage for

Greater Q'anjob'alan languages is 21.1 percent (= 12.3 + 8.8). In order to more

accurately

assess the relative degrees of influence at the level of these two more

inclusive groupings-the Lowland

languages and Greater Q'anjob'alan--points

can be assigned to the Lowland

languages not only when either Ch'olan or Yuca-

tecan appear

as candidates,

but also when both are represented

(to the exclusion

of Greater

Q'anjob'alan).

Similarly, points can be added

to Greater

Q'anjob'alan

when both Q'anjob'alan and Chujean languages appear as candidates (to the

exclusion of Lowland

languages). This procedure yields the results in table 10.

Table 10. Q'eqchii' Loans Attributable to Only One Larger Grouping

GROUP NUMBER PERCENTAGE

Lowland

languages 72 80.9%

Greater

Q'anjob'alan 17 19.1%

Thus, over three-quarters of the lexical influence in Q'eqchii' derives from

Lowland languages, and less than one quarter from Greater Q'anjob'alan

languages. It may be assumed, though not taken for granted, that a loanword

comes from Ch'olan if it is also attested in Greater Q'anjob'alan languages.

Justeson et al. (1985:10)

make this assumption, but not explicitly so. For about

half of their twenty-four examples of borrowings from Lowland Mayan lan-

guages, Greater Q'anjob'alan languages theoretically could have donated the

forms as well.

In the following discussion of loan semantic content, putative loans into

Q'eqchii' are sorted into two groups: those whose distributions indicate that

they could only have come from Greater

Q'anjob'alan,

and the rest. Statistically,

there is a greater chance (more

than 75 percent) that a borrowing

that is found

in both Greater Q'anjob'alan

and the Lowland languages comes from the latter

group, so in the following analysis all borrowings

that are not certain as being

from Greater Q'anjob'alan

are treated as being from

Ch'olan.

It is challenging to use semantic content to infer the circumstances of

borrowing

into Q'eqchii'

from

Greater

Q'anjob'alan

languages. Verbs such as 'to

be worth' and 'to give' bring to mind exchange

relations. Some terms for animals

and plants, such as 'a kind of edible snail' and 'tobacco

tree', might indicate

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68 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

certain ecological zones into which Q'eqchii' speakers have entered at a

relatively late point in time. Finally, there are a few words that refer to objects

produced by humans: 'beam', 'household utensil', 'cup'. In sum, it appears that

the influence that Q'eqchii' has received from Greater Q'anjob'alan languages is

not very heavy, and the evidence does not point to any particular, sustained

underlying sociolinguistic situation.

In contrast, the influence from the Lowland languages appears to have been

robust. It is possible to identify the semantic domains listed in table 11.4

Table 11. Semantic Domains of Loans from Lowland Languages

BODY

PARTS kaalam e /ko/ 'chin, cheek,' tzelek

'shin, long bone of leg'

EDIBLE PLANTS AND FRUITS chi' 'nanche,' isk'i'ij 'spearmint,' lol 'a kind of bean' (SP

'piloy'),' ox 'breadnut',

pata 'guava', tz'uumuuy

'sweet apple'

PLANTS

AND TREES USED

FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES k'ante' 'a kind of tree' (SP 'madre

cacao')

sutz'ul /sutz'ujl/ 'mahogany'

OTHER PLANTS

AND

TREES

k'ansin 'a certain tree', nikte' 'waterlily'

ANIMALS

yuk 'mountain goat', jeketzd' 'plain chachalaca', kolol 'certain bird of

noncultivated regions', kuluk 'black, hairy worm', kuxkux

'a certain bird', lukum

'intestinal worm', max 'weevil, tree moth', motzo' 'worm', pachach /pachach/

'cockroach',

pu' 'wild turkey', sik /suk/ 'nest', so'sol 'buzzard', wilix 'swallow',

ik'b'olay

'viper'

PARTS

OF ANIMAL

xukup 'horn', yax 'claws'

MALE CHORES

tzak 'to hunt' (in the expression /aj/ tzak 'hunting dog'), /x/k'anjel

'work', k'al 'cleared

field, cornfield'

HOUSE AND STRUCTURES

xuk 'corner', tz'ak 'wall, bricklaying, plaster', aq 'plant or

straw used for roof construction', eeb' 'ladder made of a tree trunk', q'a 'bridge',

saklun 'clay'

TOOLS

waal 'bellow',

pan 'big spoon', kololte' 'cage', k'aan 'wedge', xol /xoolp'/ 'flute',

kookom

'twiner used for tying'

ROLES teelom

'male', ko' 'woman's daughter'

RELIGION

k'ap'a'ej

'name', musiq 'spirit', b'uul'dice', ch'ool'heart'

FEMALES

CHORES,

ETC.

peteet 'spindlewhorl', t'upuy 'braid of red wool'

FOOD

mukuk 'peel from a certain fruit used for condiment in drinks made from corn-

starch' ('bolsa del tacuazin'), oobeen

'tamale', xep 'bean tamale'

SOCIAL

RELATIONS

nup'aal 'border, boundary, limit', maatan 'gift' (original meaning

probably

'tribute')

ECONOMY

ch'uy 'eight thousand'

WATER

palaw 'sea, lake', t'ululink 'jet of water', keela' 'cold water'

As observed earlier by Justeson et al. (1985), who cite some of the borrowings

noted above, Q'eqchii' was significantly influenced by a superior culture, that of

the Ch'olans and Yucatecans. Terms such as those for religion indicate that

some beliefs originate in the lowlands; the loans for h6use and constructions

indicate that lowlanders had superior technical skills; and some of the words

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CECIL H. BROWN 69

that bear on social relations suggest that Q'eqchii's were subject to political

domination. Despite their possible subordination, the Q'eqchii's seem to have

expanded their territories in the course of history, borrowing words whose

referents constitute a whole complex

of edible plants and fruits, as well as plants

and trees used for specific

purposes

that characterize the lowlands. Within their

new territories, water seems to have played an important role.

Among all of the possible Ch'olan donors, the Eastern Ch'olan language

Ch'olti', now extinct and known only from seventeenth-century documents,

seems to have contributed a disproportionately

large number of loans to Q'eq-

chii'. This large proportion

is especially remarkable in light of the fact that we

possess only very limited lexical data for the language. Ch'olti' forms appear

fifty-nine times in the list of candidates for the origins of the 134 possible

Mayan-language

loans into Q'eqchii'. Speakers of Q'eqchii'

and of Ch'olti' would

have been linguistic neighbors

before the latter language became extinct, so the

apparently great contribution of Ch'olti' is not surprising. Additionally, the

hypothesized lowland lingua franca mentioned in section 1 may have been

responsible for a number of early loans.

Among the semantic domains we also find some, like that of body parts,

whose presence is hard to explain by mere cultural influence, and thus probably

indicate that one or more Lowland languages were in full use by Q'eqchii'

speakers. Extensive multilingualism may have arisen as a result of transethnic

marriages. It is difficult, however, to single out a specific sociolinguistic situa-

tion that was at work.

Our investigation also reveals a situation of local linguistic interference in

which Q'eqchii' may have been a donor rather than receiver of loans. In five

instances a form is found only in Q'eqchii' and Mopan, and not in the other

Yucatecan languages (see appendix

D). The referents are: 'to wake up', 'agave',

'bean tamale', 'to strain', 'throat, gullet'. Since agave is a highland plant, it is

possible that the word comes from Q'eqchii',

a language that historically almost

certainly was spoken in the highlands, where languages to which it is most

closely related are also found. We can only speculate that the other borrowings

followed the same direction.

It is not a necessary hypothesis,

but for the moment

it is the simplest and most probable. Significantly, Mopan speakers today are

engulfed by speakers of Q'eqchii', and as such represent a minority in their

area.5

5. Loans in Chicomuceltec. Chicomuceltec is one of two recorded

languages

of the Huastecan subgroup

within the Mayan family. Probably

extinct for seven-

ty years or more, the language was last spoken in southeast Chiapas, in the

town of Chicomuselo near the Guatemalan border (Campbell 1988:199). This

region is bordered today by speakers of Tzeltal and Tzotzil to the north and by

speakers of Mocho and Teko to the south. This is within the general area of

concentration of Mayan languages in southern Mexico and Guatemala. Chico-

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70 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

muceltec's sister language, Huastec, is still spoken by people inhabiting parts of

San Luis Potosi and Veracruz in northeast Mexico, a region far removed from

Mayan language concentration.

Huastecan is a divergent

branch of Mayan, long thought not to have special

relations with any other group in the family (Kaufman 1976:106; Campbell

1997:163). According

to Kaufman, Proto-Huastecan (the parent language of

Chicomuceltec and Huastec) moved north, away from the area of Mayan lan-

guage concentration,

to northeast Mexico

"probably

before 1500 B.C. and surely

before 1000 B.C."

(1976:106). He also speculates that Chicomuceltec split off

from Huastec around 1100 A.D.,

migrating from northeast Mexico

back south,

ultimately to Chiapas; he writes: "there is no question ... that Chicomuceltec

did migrate from the Huastec area-it shares many phonological,

lexical, and

grammatical peculiarities uniquely with Huastec" (1976:111).

Kaufman

further

speculates that chance probably explains why speakers of Chicomuceltec

ended

up back in the Mayan language area (1980:101).

Campbell questions Kaufman's proposal and presents alternative ones:

"that Huastec left Chicomuceltec

in its attested location and migrated north, or

that Huastecan split somewhere between the present Huastec and Chico-

muceltec locations, each migrating in opposite

directions"

(1988:208-9).

He feels

these alternatives make more sense than Kaufman's with respect to under-

standing "how or why Chicomuceltec could have ended up back among other

Mayan languages after having been so separated" (1988:209). More recently,

Robertson and Houston (2002) suggest a much later removal of Huastec to

northeast Mexico

than proposed

by Kaufman,

proposing

that the migration

took

place at any time during or after the first millennium A.D.

They further argue

that Chicomuceltec moved away from

Huastec before

Huastec's departure

to the

north away from the area of Mayan language concentration.

Lexical sources for Chicomuceltec

are highly incomplete and unlikely to be

augmented. Major

sources are all relatively short vocabularies

collected

around

the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century by Sapper

(1897, 1912) and Termer (1930). Zimmermann

(1955, 1966), while basically re-

producing

published materials from Sapper and Termer, adds a few new forms

from both Sapper's and Termer's unpublished field notes. Also reproduced is

a copy of a two-page eighteenth-century confessional Zimmermann retrieved

from

the Bibliotheque

Nationale in Paris. More recently, Campbell

and Canger

(1978; see also Campbell 1988) published a few Chicomuceltec

words recorded

from several individuals that were never fluent speakers of the language. (The

present analysis is based only on words collected by Sapper and Termer, pre-

sumably from fluent speakers.)

Altogether, around four hundred lexical items are recorded for the language.

Major sources do not explain orthography used for transcription, but symbols

employed are those often found in older studies of Mesoamerican languages.

Consequently, phonetic values of symbols used to transcribe Chicomuceltec, for

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2003 SOREN WICHMANN

AND CECIL H. BROWN 71

the most part, are reasonably well understood. It should be mentioned that

Chicomuceltec sources only sporadically

mark glottalized consonants.

We have identified thirty-five of the four hundred odd lexical items as being

possible borrowings into Chicomuceltec from other Mayan languages (not

including loans from Huastec into Chicomuceltec; see Brown 1986). Thus,

conceivably, nearly 9 percent of the language's known vocabulary consists of

Mayan loanwords.

Possible loans into Chicomuceltec (see appendix E) are grouped into five

categories

in sections 5.1-5.5 below,

based on the nature of the evidence

suggest-

ing lexical items to have been borrowed.

Conclusions are drawn in section 5.6.

5.1. Chicomuceltec words not showing Proto-Huastecan and Proto-

Mayan antecedents, identified as possible loans by distributional

criteria. An example of a possible loan of this category is Chicomuceltec

<chuch>

'toad', <ch'uch> 'frog'

(lexical item 6 in appendix E). No similar word is

found in Huastec, so that there is no evidence that the item is inherited from

Proto-Huastecan.

However, similar forms occur

in three Mayan languages that

neighbor Chicomuceltec:

Tojolab'al

(ch'uch"

'frog'),

Tzeltal (xch'uch"

'frog'),

and

Tzotzil (ch'uch' 'tadpole'). This limited local distribution cutting across Mayan

genetic subgroup boundaries indicates post-Proto-Mayan innovation and

diffusion rather than a Proto-Mayan

origin. Consequently,

there is a reasonably

strong possibility that the term diffused to Chicomuceltec from one of its

neighbors.

Other possible loans fitting into this category are: <ax>, <hax> 'meat';

<balau> 'tumpline'; <hun echel> 'year'; <mic> 'mussel, shell'; <ochem chac>

'chigoe

flea'; <ok6u>

'lung'; <omot>

'cornhusk';

<ost6t>,

'vulture';

<pox>

'herb'; <sim> 'grass'; <tahuma> 'dumb'; <takin>6 'money'; <tuxte>, <sucu

tuxnen> 'small'; <uktak>

'brother';

<xepin>,

<xipin>

'grandmother'.

With only one exception, all possible loans in this category show similar

forms in other Mayan languages that are immediate or near-immediate geo-

graphic

neighbors

of Chicomuceltec

(see appendix

E for the languages involved).

The exception

is <omot>

'cornhusk',

which shows similar forms

only in Chol and

Chontal of the Ch'olan subgroup of Mayan (respectively jomojch' and jomoch',

both meaning 'cornhusk').

All Ch'olan languages are spoken in lowland areas

considerably

geographically

removed from Chicomuceltec.

5.2. Chicomuceltec words identified as possible loans by phonological

criteria. An example of a possible loan of this category is Chicomuceltec

<qu'en>, one of two words in the language, along with <chen>, designating

'mountain, hill'. The latter word is clearly cognate with Huastec (Veracruz

dialect) ch'een 'hill' (Ochoa Peralta 1978), and these cognates trace back to a

Proto-Huastecan word for 'mountain, hill' (Brown 1986). The Proto-Huastecan

word is itself a reflex of Proto-Mayan *k'ee'n (Brown and Wichmann 2003).

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72 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

Reflexes of *k'ee'n

occur

in other Mayan languages as well. In some languages,

reflexes of *k'ee'n

show an expected

stem-initial ch'- (e.g., Ch'ol

ch'en 'cave' and

Tzotzil ch'en 'cave') and in some languages, an expected stem-initial k'- (e.g.,

Chuj k'e'en 'stone, metal' and Tojolab'al k'e'en 'cave'). One of the two Chico-

muceltec words, <chen>,

shows the expected stem-initial reflex, while the other,

<qu'en>,

does not.7

The unanticipated stem-initial velar stop segment of <qu'en>

indicates that it is a loan. Possible donors include those Mayan languages in

which the expected stem-initial segment is a (glottalized) velar stop. These

include Chuj and Tojolab'al

(see above) and Mocho'

(k'e'n - k'e'ng 'cave'), all

three of which neighbor Chicomuceltec.

Table 12 lists other possible loans that fit into this category. For each item

we give the Proto-Mayan

(PM) form to which it (indirectly) relates and the ex-

pected Chicomuceltec

reflex of the Proto-Mayan

word.

Table 12.

Phonologically Identified Possible Loans in Chicomuceltec

CHICOMUCELTEC PROTO-MAYAN EXPECTED

CHICOMUCELTEC REFLEX

<c'a>

'hammock' *k'ajaang

- *k'ajng

(Kaufman **ch"ajB

and Norman 1984:119)

<etz'em>

'salt' *a'tz'aam

(Kaufman

and Norman **et'em

1984:116)

<ic> 'chili pepper' *iihk

(Brown

and Wichmann

2003) **ich

<qu'en>

'mountain, *k'ee'n

(Brown

and Wichman

2003) <chen>

(attested)

hill'

<sainc> 'ant'

(possible *sanik

(Kaufman

and Norman **sanich

typo for

<sanic>) 1984:136)

<tzam> 'nose' *tza'am

(Kaufman

1969:169) **tam

<tz'inte> 'manioc' *tz'ihn

(Brown

and Wichmann **t'in-

2003)

5.3. Chicomuceltec words identified as possible loans by semantic

criteria. There is only one possible loan fitting into this category. The

Chicomuceltec

term <k'ak'al>

'sun' has a cognate in Huastec, k'aak' 'fire'. Both

terms are probable reflexes of Proto-Mayan *q'ahq' (Brown and Wichmann

2003). Reflexes

of *q'ahq'

are found in nearly all recorded

Mayan

languages, and

in all Mayan languages but three these denote 'fire',

the most likely meaning of

the Proto-Mayan form. In addition to Chicomuceltec, the two Tzeltalan

languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, have reflexes that designate 'sun', respectively,

k'ak'al and k'ahk'al. The fact that these three languages are geographically

contiguous suggests that an areal influence accounts for the shared meaning.

This could have entailed either direct borrowing

or loan translation by Chico-

muceltec from

Tzeltalan or vice versa.9

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CECIL H. BROWN 73

5.4. Chicomuceltec words, showing Proto-Mayan antecedents,

identified as possible loans by distributional criteria. There are nine

Chicomuceltec words showing Proto-Mayan antecedents that do not occur in

Huastec. These are given in table 13, along with related Proto-Mayan

forms.

Table 13. Chicomuceltec Words

with Proto-Mayan

Antecedents Not Attested in

Huastec

CHICOMUCELTEC

FORM PROTO-MAYAN

FORM

'cougar,

puma' *kaq

'red' and

*kOj 'puma'

(Brown

and Wichmann

2003)

<chich> 'blood' *kik'

(Kaufmann

and

Norman

1984:119)

<hoo

inik> 'hundred' *ho'-

'five' (Brown

and Wichmann

2003), *winaq

(Kaufman

and Norman

1984:136)

<hukte eu> 'seven' *huuq-uub'

(Kaufman

and

Norman

1984:138)

<hul>

'cave' *jul

(Kaufman 1969:174)

<hux> 'whetstone' *huu'x 'whetstone'

(Brown

and Wichmann

2003)

<ichac>

'fingernail' *iSk'aq

(Kaufman

and Norman

1984:119)

<ita>

kind

squash' *ityaaj 'greens,

vegetables'

(authors' reconstruction)

'tapir' *tixl

(Kaufman

and Norman 1984:132)

Since these words are not present in Huastec, some or all possibly do not trace to

Proto-Huastecan. If so, they could not have been directly inherited from Proto-

Mayan, and, consequently, must be loans.

For example, the Chicomuceltec

word for 'whetstone' is <hux>, a term not

found in Huastec. In Huastec 'whetstone' is designated by pajib t'ujub

(lit., 'file

stone'). However, <hux> is clearly related to Proto-Mayan *huu'x

'whetstone'

(Brown and Wichmann

2003), which shows reflexes in many Mayan languages,

including neighbors of Chicomuceltec.

Since the term is not in Huastec, <hux>

conceivably

is not a reflex of a Proto-Huastecan

term and, if not, must be a loan.

Possible donors would be those Mayan languages that reflect Proto-Mayan

*h as

h, such as Tzeltal (hux 'whetstone').

Of course, the term in question may have once occurred in Huastec and

subsequently been replaced by pajib t'ujub. If so, it is unlikely that the Chico-

muceltec

term is a loan. Because of such considerations,

lexical items of the cate-

gory discussed in the present subsection should not be considered among the

strongest candidates for loanwords

into Chicomuceltec.

However, in some instances there is additional evidence bolstering the like-

lihood that these items could be loans. For example, when Proto-Mayan *h is

stem-initial and immediately followed by u, it is realized by a glottal stop (')

in Huastec (Kaufman 1980:103); thus, to Proto-Mayan *huu'ng 'amate bark

(paper)' corresponds Huastec 'uu 'paper' (Brown and Wichmann 2003). If this

rule were active at the Proto-Huastecan level, then the stem-initial h of Chico-

muceltec <hux>

would not be expected, indicating the word to be a loan. Unfor-

tunately, there is insufficient evidence from Chicomuceltec

to conclude defini-

tively that the rule in question pertained to Proto-Huastecan.

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74 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

Additional evidence supporting

two other items in this category as possible

loans is a bit stronger. Chicomuceltec <chich> 'blood' relates to Proto-Mayan

*kik'

(Kaufman

and Norman 1984:119),

an ancestral word with reflexes denot-

ing 'blood'

in most Mayan languages. Huastec, however, lacks a reflex of *kik'

and shows instead the term xitz' for 'blood.' In addition to <chich>, Chico-

muceltec has an alternate term for 'blood', <xich>, clearly cognate with the

Huastec word. Both lexical items are reflexes of Proto-Huastecan *xich 'blood'.

This suggests that Chicomuceltec's

original

term for 'blood' was <xich> and that

the language borrowed a second word for 'blood', <chich>, from neighboring

Mayan languages. Several neighboring languages have reflexes of *kik'

that

closely resemble <chich> phonologically; for example, Tzotzil has ch'ich'

'blood'."o

Chicomuceltec <chakch6>

'cougar, puma' relates to two Proto-Mayan

words,

*kaq

'red' and *kOj

'puma' (Brown

and Wichmann

2003)."1

The expected Chico-

muceltec reflexes of the latter are respectively chak and choh, so that it is

entirely possible that both morphemes of <chakch6>

directly stem from Proto-

Mayan. Huastec also shows reflexes of the two Proto-Mayan

words. However,

Huastec does not combine them to form a compound term, as does Chico-

muceltec. Reflexes of both *kaq and *kOj

are commonly

found in other Mayan

languages. Only two of the latter, Chuj and Q'eqchii', are known to us to com-

bine their reflexes to form a non-ad-hoc

word for a species of wildcat like that in

Chicomuceltec. Chuj has chak-chdj 'type of mountain lion', and Q'eqchii' has

kaq koj 'puma'. If the Chicomuceltec

usage were influenced by another Mayan

language, Chuj is the likely candidate,

since its term most closely resembles the

Chicomuceltec term phonologically.

5.5. Chicomuceltec words identified as loans from other Mayan

languages that originated in non-Mayan languages. The Chicomuceltec

words <masate>, <masati> 'pineapple' and <tuhil ixlabon> 'flintstone' both

ultimately derive from non-Mayan languages, respectively, Nahuatl (matza'tli

'pineapple') and Spanish (eslabon 'flintstone'). While both items could have

entered Chicomuceltec directly from Nahuatl and Spanish, respectively, the

possibility exists that these came into Chicomuceltec

indirectly from the latter

two languages through a Mayan language intermediary. Other Mayan lan-

guages (but not Huastec) show these loans. For the most part, such languages

are spoken in the general region in which Chicomuceltec is found, but not in

other areas. This geographic

clustering suggests that the items diffused across

Mayan languages. In addition,

Brown (1999) compiles extensive crosslinguistic

evidence showing that when genetically and geographically related American

Indian languages manifest the same European-language loanword, especially

when that word denotes something introduced by Europeans, typically the

distribution is mostly explained by diffusion of words from one native language

to another.

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2003 SOREN

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CECIL H. BROWN 75

5.6. Sources of loans in Chicomuceltec. In summary, we use several

different criteria (sections 5.1-5.6) to identify possible Mayan language loans

into Chicomuceltec. Some of these criteria are better than others in nailing down

loans. For example, phonological

criteria are better than distributional

criteria,

and some types of distributional criteria (e.g., section 5.1) are better than other

types of distributional criteria (e.g., section 5.4). This means that some of the

thirty-five possible loans identified are more likely to be loanwords than others.

Nevertheless, we have presented plausible reasons for considering

all thirty-five

words as possible borrowings

into Chicomuceltec

from other Mayan languages.

We have determined which Mayan languages could have donated

the thirty-

five possible loans to Chicomuceltec. This was accomplished by searching all

Mayan languages, for which we have reasonably

substantial sources (other

than

Huastec) for words phonologically

and semantically similar to the Chicomucel-

tec items. Table 14 (based on data in appendix E) lists these twenty-one lan-

guages, identifying for each its major Mayan subgroup affiliation, and stating,

for each, how many of the thirty-five possible loans it could have contributed

Chicomuceltec.

Languages are listed in rank order

by number of possible loans,

from

highest to lowest.

Table 14. Other Mayan Languages That Possibly Contributed to Chicomuceltec

LANGUAGE SUBGROUP

AFFILIATION NUMBER

OF POSSIBLE DONATIONS

Tzotzil Tzeltalan 16

Tzeltal Tzeltalan 14

Mocho' Greater

Q'anjob'alan 12

Tojolab'al Greater

Q'anjob'alan 12

Chuj Greater

Q'anjob'alan 10

Q'anjob'al Greater

Q'anjob'alan 9

Ixhil Mamean 8

Jakalteko Greater

Q'anjob'alan 7

Ch'ol Ch'olan 6

Chontal Ch'olan 6

Akateko Greater Q'anjob'alan 6

K'ichee' K'ichee'an 6

Q'eqchii' K'ichee'an 6

Tz'utujil K'ichee'an 5

Kaqchikel K'ichee'an 5

Poqomchii' K'ichee'an 5

Ch'orti' Ch'olan 5

Poqomam K'ichee'an 4

Mam Mamean 4

Teko Mamean 4

Ch'olti' Ch'olan 4

Yucatec Yucatecan 4

Itzaj Yucatecan 4

Mopan Yucatecan 4

Lacandon Yucatecan 4

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76 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

In most instances, two or more Mayan languages are possible donors to

Chicomuceltec. However, in six cases, only one language can be identified as a

possible donor.

These include Mocho'

for Chicomuceltec

<ax>,

<hax>

'flesh', and

<balau> 'tumpline'; Ixhil for <c'a> 'hammock'; Chuj for <chakch6> 'cougar,

puma', and <uktak> 'brother'; and Tzotzil for <hun echel> 'year'. With the

exception of Ixhil, all of these languages are immediate neighbors of Chico-

muceltec.

Tzeltalan and Greater

Q'anjob'alan languages dominate

the top of the list in

table 14. This is not particularly surprising since all languages affiliated with

the latter two subgroups

were spoken (and still are) in areas adjacent

to that in

which the last speakers of Chicomuceltec resided. At the very top of the list are

the two (and only) Tzeltalan languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, which were Chico-

muceltec's immediate Mayan-language neighbors to the north in Chiapas.

These two languages respectively could account for 46 percent and 40 percent of

the possible loans in Chicomuceltec.

Tied for third from

the top are Mocho' and

Tojolab'al, both Greater Q'anjob'alan languages neighboring Chicomuceltec,

Mocho' to the south and Tojolab'al

to the north. Each of these two languages

could account for 34 percent of the possible loans. In total, thirty-two of the

thirty-five possible loans, or 91 percent, could have entered Chicomuceltec from

either a Tzeltalan or Greater Q'anjob'alan language (see appendix E). The

obvious conclusion drawn from these data is that the vast majority of loans in

Chicomuceltec came from languages neighboring it in southeast Chiapas and

adjacent regions.

However, one possible loan into the language suggests contact with Mayan

languages not neighboring it. As noted above, Chicomuceltec uniquely shares

<omot> 'cornhusk' with both Ch'ol and Chontal (which have, respectively,

jomojch'

and

jomoch'

for 'cornhusk'),

languages of the Ch'olan

branch of Mayan

spoken in lowland regions of southern Mexico

(see map 1). There is a possibility

that Chicomuceltec and Ch'olan languages acquired this item only in post-

contact times, since it may be derived from the Mexican Spanish word joloche

'cornhusk'

(restricted in usage to southeast Mexico).

The word

joloche itself has

an uncertain etymology,

but may perhaps be traced to Nahuatl xolochtik

'some-

thing wrinkled'. If this is correct,

Ch'olan languages and Chicomuceltec

cannot

have acquired the term before the early part of the eighteenth century, when

Spanish x changed to j. If, as seems to be the case, Chicomuceltec

and Ch'olan

languages uniquely share the term, this would imply postcontact interaction of

their respective speakers. Given the geographic

separation

of Chicomuceltec and

Ch'olan in modern times, we are reluctant to tender a hypothesis about late

contact based on just one possibly borrowed

item. We consider it equally likely

that some Mayan language closer to Chicomuceltec could have donated the item,

although the attestation in lexical sources for the relevant language is lacking.

The semantic content of the possible loans has implications for the dynamics

of interaction between speakers of Chicomuceltec and their neighbors in south-

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AND CECIL H. BROWN 77

east Chiapas and adjoining areas. Some items refer to concepts of high culture

such as 'year', words for numbers, and words for certain animals, such as

'cougar, puma', 'tapir', and 'vulture', which could figure in important local

myths. Some items denote things relating to trade, such as 'tumpline', 'salt',

'mussel', 'flint', 'whetstone', and numbers again. These seem to indicate cul-

tural influence from dominant groups and, perhaps, the status of Chicomuceltec

speakers as subordinates.

On the other hand, other items such as kinship terms

('brother', 'grandmother') and words for body parts and substances ('blood',

'fingernail', 'lung', 'nose') suggest a more intimate relationship with donors,

perhaps involving some degree of multilingualism.

6. Conclusions. Various

sociolinguistic

situations appear

to underlie diffusion

of the loanwords identified in this study. For none of the three cases examined

has it been simple to determine circumstances

of diffusion,

probably

because the

manner in which Ixhiles, Q'eqchii's, and Chicomuceltecs have interacted with

their neighbors of different ethnic affiliations must have changed numerous

times during many centuries of language contact. Nevertheless, general situa-

tions that significantly influenced linguistic interference can be inferred.

In the Ixhil case, lexical diffusion from Q'anjob'alan

does not center upon

specific semantic domains to such an extent that it is possible to draw safe

conclusions concerning the sociolinguistic circumstances that gave rise to it.

Nevertheless, precisely because of the absence of clusterings of items in specific

domains, we find it reasonable to speculate that an interaction at the more

intimate, interpersonal level was involved, perhaps involving intermarriage

among Ixhil men and Greater Q'anjob'alan

women.

In the Q'eqchii'

case, the majority

of loanwords are due to diffusion from the

Lowland languages. The interaction with Lowland Mayan ethnic groups not

only involved a certain cultural subordination of the Q'eqchii's, but also the

expansion of this group, probably

as a result of successful participation in the

periphery

of the economic and political networks that were centered

in the great

cities of the Classic-period

lowlands.

Finally, Chicomuceltec

appears to have been influenced by various linguis-

tic neighbors-Tzeltalan and Greater Q'anjob'alan languages. This may have

involved a high culture of the area, in a way similar to the Q'eqchii' case.

There are also indications of more intimate contact, perhaps entailing multi-

lingualism.

Appendix A: Language Abbreviations and Data Sources

Abbreviations

used in this article are explained below. These were generally created, as

is common practice among Mayanists, from the three first letters of the traditional

spellings of the language designations.

When ambiguities

arise, subsequent letters enter

into the abbreviation.

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78 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

When sources are referred

to that do not appear

in the list of principal

sources

below,

this is marked explicitly. For sources that are indicated explicitly, the following abbre-

viations for authors' names are used: CR = Cedillo Chel and Juan Ramirez; CW =

Wisdom; HR = Hurley and Ruiz Sanchez; JD = Dienhart; NH = Hopkins; SJ = Sam Juarez

et al.; TK = Kaufman; UU = Ulrich and Ulrich.

ABBREVIATION LANGUAGE PRIMARY

SOURCES

AKA Akateko Andres et al. (1996)

CHI Chicomuceltec Zimmermann

(1955)

CHL Ch'ol Aulie and Aulie (1978)

CHN Chontal Keller and Luciano G. (1997)

CH'R Ch'orti' P6rez Martinez et al. (1996)

CHT Ch'olti' Moran

(1695) MS cited in Sattler (n.d.)

CHU Chuj Felipe Diego and Gaspar

Juan (1998)

HUA Huastec Larsen (1955)

IXH Ixhil Cedillo Chel and Ramirez

(1999)

JAK Jakalteko Ramirez

P6rez, Montejo,

and Diaz Hurtado

(1996)

KAQ Kaqchikel Cojti

Macario et al. (1998)

K'ICH K'ichee' Ajpacaja

Tum et al. (1996)

LAC Lacandon Canger (1969-70)

MAM Mam Maldonado

Andres et al. (1986)

MOCH Mocho' Kaufman

(1967)

MOP Mopan Schumann (1997)

PQCH Poqomchii' Malchic Nicolas (2000)

PQM Poqomam Malchic

Nicolas (2000)

Q'AN Q'anjob'al Diego Antonio et al. (1996)

Q'EQ Q'eqchii' Sam Juarez et al. (1997);

Sedat (1955)

ToJ Tojolab'al Lenkersdorf

(1979)

TZE Tzeltal Slocum,

Gerdel,

and Cruz

Aguilar (1999)

Tzo Tzotzil Laughlin (1975)

TZ'UT Tz'utujil P6rez Mendoza

and Hernandez Mendoza

(1996)

YUC Yucatec Bricker et al. (1998)

Appendix B: Possible Loanwords in Ixhil

The following list contains words in Ixhil that may have been borrowed as well as those

Mayan languages that could have donated them. Spanish glosses are given in

parentheses.

1. a amool 'adulterous woman' ('mujer adtiltera'), moolinchil 'to commit adultery'

('cometer adulterio'): Q'AN, AKA,

JAK,

MOCH, CHU, TOJ, TZE, TZO, CHL

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2. b'ahmam 'a kind of plant' ('sauico'): AKA,

JAK

3. b'as 'stained, dirty' ('tiznado (a), sucio (a)'):

CH'R

4. b'i"to stretch' ('estirar'): Q'AN,

AKA, JAK,

TOJ,

CH'R

5. b'ob'"a

kind of tree' ('palo

de esponja')

(TK 1974b):

Q'AN,

CHL,

YUC

6. b'o'lay b'alam 'jaguar (has spots),' b'o'lay 'a dangerous snake from the coast'

('culebra

muy peligrosa de costa') (TK 1974b):

Q'EQ,

CHT,

CHL,

LAC,

TZE

7. b'olob'

'fire' ('incendio'):

Q'AN,

AKA, JAK,

CHU

8. chelem 'young' ('joven'):

MOCH, CHU,

CHL,

TOJ,

TZE, Tzo, YUC

9. chinam 'cotton':

TZE

(Colonial),

CHL,

CHT, CH'R,

ITZ

(JD 1989)

10. chon 'beginning;

main root' ('principio;

raiz principal'):

Q'an, Jak

11. chulub'"oak'

('roble'):

JAK,

Q'AN,

AKA,

CHU

(NH 1967), Yuc (Colonial)

12. ch'a'n 'a little while ago, a moment ago' ('hace poco,

hace un momento'):

Q'AN,

AKA

13. ch'avuk"Hierba Mora'

(a toponym):

CHU

(NH 1967), CHL, MOP,

ITZ

14. ch'eeb'al 'stake' ('estaca'):

AKA

15. ch'em 'wild pig' ('jabali'):

AKA, TZE,

CHL

16. ch'e'n 'Stone (a surname of Nebaj)' ('Piedra [apellido de Nebaj]'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

MOCH,

CHU, TOJ,

TZE,

TZO,

CHL, CHN, CHT, CH'R, MOP, ITZ, YUC, CHI,

HUA

(Larsen

1955;

Ochoa 1978)

17. hen-kin 'broad

and large' ('ancho

y grande') (TK 1974b):

Q'AN,

AKA

18. isun-kyil 'hiss between teeth' (TK 1974b): CHU,

TZO

19. koxh

kopiin 'eagle' ('aguila'), koxhkopil

'redheaded buzzard' ('zopilote

cabeza

roja'):

CHL, CHT,

CH'R,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ

20. k'ewkin 'with mouth open, cracked open' ('boca abierta ... rajado') (TK 1974b):

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

CHU

(NH 1967), ToJ, CHL

21. k'oh 'horsefly' ('tdbano') (TK 1974b): CHL,

ITZ

22. k'ut 'brooding,

sound of hen' ('clueca,

voz de gallina'): AKA, JAK,

MOCH

23. lak 'to raise/construct

house, lift a heavy object,

place load onto somebody's

back,

lift

out of the bed, to push a load of someone, set upright' ('levantar/construir casa,

levantar cosa pesada, poner carga en espalda de otro, levantar de la cama, empujar

la carga de otro, set upright') (TK 1974b):

Q'AN, AKA,

JAK,

CHL

24. laka'pchil 'to get out of bed quickly, as when one is being waked up at the wrong

moment' ('levantarse rapido de la cama cuando lo despiertan fuera de tiempo'),

lakpichil 'to get up, wake up' ('levantarse, despertarse'):

CHN

25. lol 'female sexual organ' ('sexo de la mujer')

(TK 1974b):

Q'AN,

CHU

(NH 1976)

26. lom-o'm 'to beat with a stick' ('pegar

con un palo')

(TK 1974b):

CHL,

CHN,

CHT,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ,

YUC

27. luch'i-'m 'to pinch' ('pellizcar')

(TK 1974b): AKA,

TZE,

CHL

28. mech' 'sea-shell' (TK 1974b): Q'AN,

AKA, CHT?,

CH'R?

(the CH'R form mech'shell,

etc.' has an unglottalized ch)

29. mu' 'sister-in-law

of man (the wife's sister), brother-in-law of woman (the husband's

brother)'

('cufiada

de hombre

(hermana

de la esposa),

cufiado

de mujer (hermano

del

esposo)'): Q'AN,

AKA, TZE,

TZO, CHL,

CHN, CHT, CH'R,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ, LAC,

CHI,

HUA

(Tapia 1985)

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80 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

30. nah 'he; man, male' ('el; hombre,

var6n'):

Aka

31. nek 'black dog' ('perro

negro'):

CHL

32. pa'ich 'tomato' ('tomate'):

Q'AN,

CHU,

CH'R

(John Robertson

p.c. 2002)

33. pilq'"to turn, turn around'

(transitive) ('dar vuelta, voltear'): JAK,

CHU

34. poptum 'Poptfin':

Classic Ch'olan (glyphic

inscriptions), CH'R

35. pos 'pale' ('palido,

-a'): CHN, ITZ, YUC,

LAC

36. potix 'watery, deflated, soft' ('aguado,

desinflado, suave'): CHN

37. sak'b'ichil 'for skin to tremble, for muscles to move' ('temblar

la piel, alteraci6n de

muisculos'):

Q'AN,

TZE,

CHN, MOP, ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

38. saak'chil 'to make thin, diminish, to shrink' ('adelgazar,

disminuir, encoger'):

CHN

39. satkin 'rough' ('granudo'),

satel 'rough, large' ('granudo, grande'), satux 'said of

animals that have large eyes' ('dicese de los animales que tienen ojos grandes'):

Q'AN, AKA, JAK,

CHU, TOJ

40. sihma'm 'to blow one's nose' ('sonarse la nariz'), siho'm 'to smell' ('oler, olfatear'):

AKA,

JAK

41. tele'q'

'fallen to the ground,

thrown onto the ground'

('caido

en el suelo, botado en el

suelo'): JAK,

CHU

42. txak"

'to gnaw' ('morder'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

CHU

(NH 1967), TOJ,

CHL,

CH'R

43. txicham 'peccary,' chicham 'coche ... pig' (TK 1974b), chicham 'pig' ('cerdo,

marrano') (CR 1999): Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

MOCH,

CHU,

TOJ,

TZE,

TZO,

CHL,

CHN,

CH'R,

MoP, ITZ,

YUC

44. tx'al 'to twist (string, rope)' ('torcer (pita, lazo)') (TK 1974b):

JAK, CHU,

TOJ,

CHN,

ITZ,

LAC

45. tz'on 'anemia, cancer' ('anemia, cancer'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK

46. uch 'wild dove' ('paloma

(silvestre)'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

CHU

47. ul 'a kind of snail' ('babosa, caracol'):

Yuc, CHI

(Zimmermann

1955), HUA

48. utz"'small' ('chiquito'):

Q'AN,

AKA

49. votx

'light (not heavy);

lung' ('liviano; bofe, pulmon'):

MOCH,

TOJ,

TZO

50. yoch'kin 'skinny' ('flaco

(a)'):

Q'AN,

AKA

Appendix C: Possible Loanwords in Q'eqchii'

Here we list possible loanwords in Q'eqchii', together with their possible donor

languages. If a given loanword

has previously

been identified as such by Justeson et al.

(1985:10),

who cite twenty-four

examples,

this is credited

by the abbreviation

"[FI],"

even

if, in most cases, we have improved

indications of theoretically

possible donors.

However,

we would interpret one of their examples as a borrowing

from Mopan (cf. appendix D).

Here again Spanish glosses are also included in parentheses. The occasional use of

slashes in Q'eqchii' entries is explained in note 4. The grapheme p' of Sedat (1955)

corresponds to the grapheme b' of Sam Juarez et al. (1997) and is, for purposes of

alphabetical order,

treated as b'.

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1. ak 'now, already' ('ya'):

MOP,

YUC

2. aak'ab"' 'darkness':

TZE,

Tzo, CHL, CHN,

CHT,

CH'R, ITZ,

YUC

[FI]

3. aakan 'to groan':

CHL

[FI]

4. akte"'a

kind of tree' ('pacaya

silvestre con espinas'): TOJ,

CHL

[FI]

5. aq 'plants or straw used for roof construction'

('monte o paja que sirve para techar

ranchos'): CHU,

TOJ,

TZE, CHT,

CH'R,

YUC,

LAc,

HUA

(Alejandre

1889)

6. aatinak 'to be worth' ('valer'):

ToJ,

TZE,

TZO

(southern dialect [TK 1972])

7. ax 'breadnut'

('ramon') (Stoll 1896),

ox 'a kind of fruit' ('quequescamote'):

CHL,

CH'R

(CW 1950), ITZ

(JD 1989), YUC, LAC

(Bruce 1968), HUA

(Brown 1972)

8. p'itoonk 'to carry (on head)' ('cargar

(en la cabeza)'):

CH'R

9. p'ook 'smell' ('aroma'):

CHT, MOP, ITZ,

YUC

10. b'oox

'pocket'

('bolsa'):

CHL,

LAC

11. b'uul 'dice':

CHL, CHT, MOP,

YUC

[FI]

12. b'utz'

'smoke'

('humareda')

(SJ 1997): TZE, CHL, CHN, CHT,

CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ, YUC,

LAC

[FI]

13. chakmut

'great curassow'

('faisan'): ToJ,

Tzo, CHL,

CHN,

and CH'R

[FI]

have both the

constituent morphemes chak and mut; they must all be considered candidates

although only Chl has the compound

[FI]

14. chakti' 'cichlid'

('mojarra'):

CHU, TZO, CHL, CHN,

and CHT have both the constituent

morphemes

chak 'red' and ti"

'mouth';

none have the compound

[FI]

15. chi"''nanche'

('nance'):

Tzo, CHL, CHN,

CH'R

(CW 1950), MoP

(UU 1976),

ITZ,

YUC

16. choq

/choql/'cloud' ('nube'):

TZE, CHL, CH'R,

HUA

17. ch'anaak 'to silence' ('silenciar'),

ch'anamil 'silence' ('silencio'):

ToJ,

Tzo (HR 1978),

CHL,

CH'R

18. ch'ool'heart': TZE,

TZO,

CHL,

CHN,

CHT

[FI]

19. ch'uukiink 'to spy on' ('espiar'):

CHN,

CH'R,

CHT,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

20. ch'uy 'eight thousand' ('ocho

mil') (SJ 1997):

ITZ

21. eeb' 'ladder

made of a tree trunk' ('escalera

hecha de un tronco .. .') (SJ 1997):

CHT,

MOP

(UU 1976; Schumann 1997), ITZ,

HUA

22. eq'la /eq'ela/ q'ela/'early, morning' ('temprano,

la maniana'): MOCH,

CHT,

LAC

23. homok

'to break, make a hole in a pot' ('quebrar,

hacer agujero

en una olla'):

ToJ

24. hop'ok

'to abuse verbally' ('maltratar

(con

malas palabras)'):

CHL,

CHN

25. ik'b'olay

'viper':

CHL,

CHT

[FI]

26. isk'i'ij'spearmint' ('yerbabuena'):

CHT

27. japok /e/ 'to open the mouth, scream' ('abrir

la boca, gritar'):

Q'AN,

JAK,

TZE, CHL,

CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ, YUC, LAC,

HUA

28. jay 'thin, skinny' ('delgado,

flaco'):

CHU,

TOJ,

TZE, Tzo, CHL,

CHN,

CHT, CH'R, YUC

29. jeketzo' 'plain chachalaca' ('chacha'), heketze / heketzo 'plan chachalaca'

('Baumhuhn,

Chacha,

Chachalaca')

(Stoll 1896):

TZE,

TZO

(Laughlin 1975, HR 1978),

CH'R

(CW 1950), HUA

30. jek'ok

'to distribute' ('repartir'):

TOJ,

CHL,

CHN,

CH'R

31. jochok

'to scratch, steal' ('rascar,

robar'):

JAK,

MOCH, TZE,

CHL,

CHN, MOP,

YUC,

LAC

32. juk'uk 'to undo, decompose, destroy' ('deshacer, descomponer,

destruir'):

Yuc

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82 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

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33. /x/juyp'al 'to move something' ('menearlo'): Q'AN,

AKA, JAK, MOCH, CHU,

TOJ,

TZE,

Tzo, CHL, CHN, CH'R,

CHT

34. kalaak 'to get drunk, drunkenness' ('embriagarse, embolarse, embriaguez'): CHT,

CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ, YUC,

LAC

35. kaalam e /ko/'chin, cheek' ('quijada,

mejilla'):

JAK,

TZO

(HR 1978), CHT

36. keela' 'cold

water' ('agua

frfo')

(SJ 1997):

MOP

(UU 1976; Schumann

1997),

ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

37. ko'woman's daughter' ('hija (de madre)'): CHL,

YUC

[FI]

38. kookom 'twiner used for tying' ('bejuco

para amarrar'):

CHL

[FI]

39. kolol 'certain bird of non-cultivated

regions' ('ave de monte'):

CHT,

MOP

(UU 1976)

40. kololte' 'cage, basket' ('jaula, cacaxte'): Tzo (Laughlin 1975, HR 1978), CHL,

CH'R

[FI]

41. kuluk 'black, hairy worm' ('gusano negro peludo') (SJ 1997): CHT,

CH'R,

MOP

(UU

1976; Schumann 1997)

42. kuxkux

'a certain bird' ('cierto

paijaro'):

CH'R

43. k'al'cleared field, cornfield'

('roza,

milpa'):

TZE,

CHT

44. k'aan 'wedge' ('curia'):

MAM,

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

CHU

(NH 1967), TOJ,

CHL, CHN, CHT,

CH'R,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ

(JD 1989;

Hofling and Tesucuin

1997), YUC

45. /x/k'anjel'work' ('trabajo'):

CHT,

CH'R

(CW 1950)

46. k'ansin 'a certain tree' ('cierto 6rbol'): CHL,

YUC

47. k'ante' 'a kind of tree' ('madre

cacao') (SJ 1997): JAK,

MOCH,

CHU

(NH 1967), Tzo

(HR 1978), CH'R,

MOP

(UU 1976), YUC

48. k'ap'a'ej

'name (in general)' ('nombre

(en general)'):

CHL,

CHN, CHT,

CH'R, MOP, ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

[FI]

49. /x/k'atq 'near something, by' ('cerca de /el/; junto a'): Q'AN,

MOCH

50. k'aayk 'to become accustomed to' ('acostumbrarse') (SJ 1997): Q'AN, AKA,

JAK,

MOCH,

CHU,

TOJ,

TZE,

CHL

51. k'e 'give it to him/her!' ('dale'), k'ehok 'to give' ('dar'): ToJ, TZE

52. k'op'ok 'to perforate' ('agujerear'): Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK

53. k'onlaak 'to get curved' ('encorvarse'): Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

CHU

(NH 1976), CHN,

CHT

54. k'onox 'spiral-shaped' ('forma de espiral'): CH'R

55. k'osok

'to shorten, lower, diminish' ('acortar,

rebajar,

disminuir'):

MOP

(UU 1976),

YUC,

CH'R

56. <laab>

'a certain twiner' (a Colonial

source cited by Sattler [n.d.]):

CHT

57. lol 'a kind of bean' ('piloy

(frijol)'):

Q'AN,

CH'R,

MOP

58. lub'k 'to get tired' ('cansarse'):

ToJ, TZE,

Tzo (HR 1978), CHL, CHN,

CHT,

CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ, YUC,

LAC

59. lukum 'intestinal worm' ('lombriz'): Q'AN,

JAK, CHU,

TOJ,

TZE, Tzo, CHL,

CHT, CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ,

Yuc, LAC [FI]

60. lut 'twin' ('mellizo,

gemelo'):

CHL

61. maatan 'gift' ('regalo'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

JAK,

TOJ,

TZE,

TZO,

CHL, CHN, CHT, MOP,

ITZ,

YUC,

HUA

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2003 SOREN

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62. mayte'"a

certain small tree' ('cierto arbolito'):

TOJ,

TZO

[FI]

63. max 'weevil, tree moth' ('mico,

gorgojo,

polilla de madera'):

CH'R,

YUC

64. mek'onk

'to embrace forcefully'

('abrazar

con fuerza'):

Q'AN,

AKA, JAK, MOCH,

CHU,

TZE, CHL,

CHN, CHT, CH'R, ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

65. metzoonk 'to cuddle a child in the arms' ('acurrucarse

con un niiio en los brazos'):

TOJ, TZE,

Tzo

66. mooch"

'handful' ('pufiado'):

MOCH, TZE, Tzo, CHL,

CHT,

MOP

(UU 1976)

67. motzo'"worm'

('gusano'):

CHL,

CHN

68. mukuk

'peel of a kind of fruit which is added to drinks made of cornstarch

for condi-

ment; pocket of the Mexican opossum' ('cascara

de un tipo de fruta que se hecha en

el atol;

bolsa del tacuazin') (SJ 1997):

CHU,

CHL, CH'R,

MOP,

LAC

69. muk'mu

'leaning' ('inclinado'):

CHL

70. muluq'ut 'tadpole' ('tepocate'):

Q'AN,

AKA, JAK,

CHU

(NH 1967)

71. musiq'"respiration; spirit' ('respiracion;

espfritu'):

CHT,

CH'R,

ITZ

(JD 1989),

YUC

72. nach'"near'

(Campbell

1971:215):

CHN, CHT, MOP, ITZ,

YUC

[FI]

73. nat'ok 'to squeeze, press, bolt, cover,

to remove entrails' ('apretar, prensar,

atrancar,

tapar, destripar'):

K'ICH, KAQ,

TZ'UT,

CHT, CH'R,

MOP

(UU 1976), ITZ,

YUC,

HUA

74. nikte' 'waterlily' ('nenmifar

(planta acuatica)') (SJ 1997):

CHU,

TOJ,

CHN, CHT, CH'R,

MoP, YUC

75. num 'too much, a lot, to exceed' ('demasiado, muy, propasarse'): CHL, CHN, CH'R,

CHT

76. nup'aal 'border,

boundary,

limit' ('lindero, confin, limite'): Q'AN,

AKA,

CHU,

CH'R

77. oobeen

'tamale' (JD 1989):

Q'AN,

CHT

78. rokep' saq'e 'west' ('poniente'),

rokep'aal

wakax

'gate of fence for cattle' ('puerta

del

ganado'):

Tzo, CHL,

MOP

79. ox 'breadnut'

('kekescamote'):

Q'AN,

CHL, CH'R, ITZ,

YUC,

HUA

80. pachach /pachach/ 'cockroach'

('cucaracha'):

CH'R

81. palaw 'sea, lake' ('mar, lago'):

CHT

82. pan 'big spoon' ('cucharon'): Q'AN,

AKA, TZE, CHTr,

CH'R

(CW 1950), LAC

83. pat 'crust' ('costra,

postilla'): CHU, TZE, CHL,

CHN, CHT, CH'R, MOP,

ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

84. pata 'guava' ('guayaba'):

AKA, JAK,

MOCH, CHU,

TOJ,

TZE,

TZO,

CHL,

CHN, CHT,

CH'R,

MoP

85. peech 'roll, etc.' 'rollo,

percha de lefia, tablas, etc.' (SJ 1997): JAK, MOCH,

CHT, MOP,

ITZ,

YUC

86. poyte"corkwood

tree' ('balsa (palos de bach)'):

CHL, CHT,

CHL

[FI]

87. pu'"wild turkey' ('pavo

silvestre'): ITZ

88. puchok' /puchirk/ 'to suffer from dropsy, to swell' ('tener hidropesia, hincharse'):

ToJ,

MOP

89. putz'uk 'to crush' ('machucar'):

Q'AN

90. q'a 'bridge' ('puente') (SJ 1997): MOCH,

TZE

(Laughlin 1975), CHL, CHN,

CH'R

(CW

1950)

91. q'ichok

/e/ 'to scream' ('gritar'):

AKA

92. saklun 'clay'; CHU,

TOJ,

TZE,

CHL, CHN, CH'R,

MOP, ITZ,

and YUC

have both the

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84 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

constituent morphemes

sak 'white' and lum/lu'um/li'um; none have the compound

[FI]

93. sek"

'household

utensil, cup' ('trasto, taza'): Q'AN,

AKA, JAK, MOCH,

TOJ,

MOP

94. seep' 'light (not heavy), active' ('ligero, liviano, activo'):

AKA,

CHU,

CHN,

ITZ, YUC,

LAC

95. set'ok 'to cut off, gnaw' ('cortar, roer'):

ToJ, TZE, Tzo, CHL,

CHT,

CH'R,

MOP,

ITZ

96. sik /suk/ 'nest' ('nido'):

CHT

97. so'sol 'buzzard'

('zopilote'):

CHT,

ITZ

98. /x/sululil'muddy' ('lodoso'):

Q'AN,

AKA

99. sup'uk 'to sink, put an object

into another object'

('hundir,

meter una cosa en otra'):

CHL

100. sutz'ul /sutz'ujl/ 'mahogany'

('caoba'):

TZE,

CHL

101. tach'ap'aank 'to level, place in even position' ('nivelar, dejar

una cosa nivelada'):

CH'R

102. tamok

'to gather' ('juntar'):

TZE,

TZO,

HUA

103. tel 'arm' ('brazo'): MOCH, CHU,

TOJ

104. teelom

'male person, male' ('varon, macho'): CHN,

CHT

105. telto 'extended' ('extendido'):

Q'AN,

JAK,

TZO,

CHT

106. tenok 'to hit' ('golpear'):

Q'AN,

CHU, TZE, CHL,

CHT,

CH'R

107. tiix 'old person, ripe' ('anciano,

anciana, saz6n'):

CH'R

(CW 1950)

108. tupus /roq/ 'short' ('corto'):

Q'AN,

AKA

109. t'ululink 'jet of water' ('el agua en forma de chorro'):

TZE,

CHN

110. t'upuy 'braid of red wool' ('trenza de lana roja (las mujeres la usan en la cabeza)'):

CHT

111. /aj/ tzak 'hunting dog' ('perro

cazador'):

Q'AN,

JAK, MOCH,

TZE,

TZO,

CHN, CHT,

CH'R

112. tzelek

'shin, long bone of leg' ('espinilla, canilla de la pierna'):

CHT

113. tz'ak 'wall, bricklaying, plaster' ('pared, obra de calicanto, mezcla'): CHU

(NH

1967), ToJ, TZE,

CHL

114. tz'amp'a 'beam' ('viga'): Q'AN,

AKA,

TZE,

TZO

115. tz'ap'ok

'to stir the fire, to kindle' ('juntar fuego, atizar'):

CHL,

CHN,

CHT,

CH'R

116. tz'e 'left' ('izquierda'):

CHL,

CHN,

CH'R

117. tz'ep'

/p'etz'/ 'cross-eyed,

one-eyed, squint-eyed'

('bizco, tuerto, turnio'):

Q'AN,

CHT,

CH'R,

ITZ

(JD 1989), YUC

118. tz'uumuuy

'sweet apple' ('anona') (JD 1989):

CHN

119. waal 'bellow' ('soplador'):

CHT, CH'R, MOP, ITZ,

YUC

120. /x/waxil 'madness, rabies' ('locura,

rabia'):

CHT

121. wilix'swallow' ('golondrina'):

CHL

122. woq'woh 'to sit' (JD 1989): Q'AN,

AKA,

CHU

123. xeek" 'a kind of palm' ('especie de palma'): Q'AN,

CHU

(NH 1967)

124. xelok

/xerok/ 'to split, crack'

('partir, rajar (por

el rayo)'):

TZO, CH'R,

MOP,

YUC

125. xep 'bean tamales' ('tamalitos con frijol'):

Q'AN,

AKA,

CH'R

(CW

1950)

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2003 SOREN

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126. xeq'ok

'to butt with horn, wound, hit with fist' ('cornear, herir, dar de pufiadas'):

CHN, CHT, CH'R,

HUA

127. xoch 'a type of edible snail' ('cierto

animal' (caracolillo

comestible)):

Q'AN,

AKA, JAK,

CHU,

TOJ

128. xol /xoolp'/ 'flute' ('flauta'):

CHT,

MOP

129. xox

'pimple' ('grano'):

CHT,

MOP

130. xuk 'corner'

('esquina')

[the final consonant in all the possible sources for this loan

is surprisingly k']: Tzo, CHT, MOP, ITZ,

YUC

131. xukup'"horn'

('cuerno, cacho'): CHN,

CHT

[FI]

132. yax 'claws' ('pinzas'):

CHU,

TOJ,

TZO,

CHN

133. yuk 'mountain goat' ('cabra

de monte'): MOP, ITZ,

YUC,

LAC

[FI]

134. yu'usiink 'to swing in hammock,

move' ('hamaquear,

menear'): TZE,

TZO,

CHN

Appendix D: Possible Loans from Q'eqchii' to Mopan

Below we provide

five instances in which Q'eqchii' may have been a donor of loans. Here

the abbreviation "[FI]" is used as in appendix C. Spanish glosses are included in

parentheses.

1. aj-'to wake up': MOP ah- 'to wake up' [FI]

2. ik'e 'agave' ('maguey'):

MOP

ik'eh 'agave' ('maguey')

(UU 1976)

3. sukuk

/tz'u'uj/ 'bean tamal' ('tayuyo

(tamal de frijol)'):

MOP

sukuk

'tortilla made out

of ground

beans' ('tortilla hecha con frijol

molido')

4. tz'ilok

'to strain' ('colar'):

MoP tz'iiltik, tz'iiltaj'to strain' ('colarlo')

5. xolol 'throat, gullet' ('garganta, esofago'): MOP

xolol 'throat, gullet' ('garganta,

es6fago')

Appendix E: Possible Loanwords in Chicomuceltec

The thirty-five possible loanwords are given below in their original transcriptions,

enclosed in angle brackets (< >),

with an indication of Mayan languages that might have

been donors.

Also given for each item in brackets is the Huastec (Potosino dialect) word

or words showing the same or nearly the same meaning. The parenthesized glosses are

the original ones from Termer

(1930) and Sapper

(1912), mostly in German.

1. <ax>,

<hax> 'meat' ('Fleisch'):

MOCH

[Hua t'u'lek 'meat']

2. <balau>

'tumpline' ('Mecapal (Tragband)'):

MOCH

[HUA

ok'nab 'tumpline']

3. <c'a> 'hammock'

('Hiingematte'): IXH [HUA

(not found)]

4. <chakch6>

'cougar, puma' ('Cuguar,

Puma'):

CHU

[HUA

tzooj'puma']

5. <chich> 'blood'

('Blut'):

Tzo, TZE,

CHL,

CHN,

CHT,

CH'R

[HUA

xitz"'blood']

6. <chuch> 'toad' ('Krate'),

<ch'uch>

'frog' ('Frosch'):

ToJ, Tzo, TZE

[HUA

t'iim 'frog',

oo"little frog', k'wa"'toad']

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86 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

7. <etz'em> 'salt' ('Salz'): MOCH,

AKA,

Q'AN,

JAK,

CHU,

TOJ,

Tzo, TZE,

IXH, MAM, TEK,

K'ICH,

TZ'UT,

KAQ,

Q'EQ,

PQCH, PQM, CHL,

CHN, CHT,

CH'R

[HUA

at'em 'salt']

8. <hoo inik> 'hundred':

CHU,

TOJ,

Tzo, TZE

[HUA

bo' inik 'hundred']

9. <hukte eu> 'seven': MOCH, CHU, TOJ, Tzo, TZE,

IXH [HUA

buuk

'seven']

10. <hul> 'cave' ('H6hle'): CHU, IXH, MAM, TEK, K'ICH,

TZ'UT,

KAQ,

Q'EQ,

PQCH, PQM

[HUA

paxaalhool 'cave', hool 'hole']

11. <hun echel> 'year' ('Jahr'):

Tzo [HUA

tamub 'year']

12. <hux> 'whetstone' ('Schleifstein'): ToJ, Tzo, TZE,

Q'EQ,

PQCH,

PQM,

CHL,

YUC, ITZ,

MOP,

LAC

[HUA

pajib t'ujub

'whetstone']

13. <ic> 'chili pepper' ('Chile (Paprica)'): MOCH, IXH, TEK, K'ICH, TZ'UT, KAQ,

Q'EQ,

PQCH,

PQM,

YUC,

ITZ,

MOP,

LAC

[HUA

itz 'chili pepper']

14. <ichic> 'fingernail' ('Fingernagel'): TzO, CHN,

CH'R, YUC,

ITZ, MOP,

LAC

[HuA itsik'

'nail']

15. <ita'> 'a kind of squash' ('Ayote'):

AKA,

Q'AN,

JAK,

CHU,

TOJ,

Tzo, TZE

[HuA

thuk'uk'

'a kind of squash', k'alam 'a kind of squash', tz'oop

'a kind of squash' (Alcorn

1984)]

16. <k'ak'al> 'sun' ('Sonne'):

Tzo, TZE

[HUA

k'iichaa 'sun']

17. <masat6>, <masati> 'pineapple' ('Ananas'): AKA,

Q'AN, JAK, IXH,

K'ICH

[HUA

chabchamwitz

'pineapple']

18. <mic>

'mussel, shell' ('Muschel'): JAK,

TOJ

[HUA

mooy

'shell']

19. <ochem chac> 'chigoe

flea' ('Sandfloh

(nigua)'):

Tzo, TZE

[HUA

otzax tz'ak 'flea that

burrows

into the feet']

20. <okdu>

'lung' ('Lunge'):

AKA,

Q'AN

[HUA

tha'ub 'lung']

21. <omot>

'cornhusk'

('Maishiillblatt'): CHL,

CHN

[HUA

hohob

'cornhusk']

22. <ostot>,

'vulture' ('Aasgeier'): Q'AN,

CHU,

TZE

[HUA

t'ot 'vulture']

23. <pox>

'herb' ('Kraut'): Tzo, TZE

[HUA

tz'ohool

'herb, plant']

24. <qu'en>

'mountain' ('Berg'):

MOCH, CHU,

TOJ

[HUA

tz'een 'mountain']

25. <sainc>

'ant' ('Ameise')

(possibly

a typographic

error for <sanic>): MOCH, AKA,

Q'AN,

JAK, MAM, TEK,

K'ICH,

TZ'UT,

KAQ,

Q'EQ

[HUA thanitz'ant']

26. <sim>

'grass' ('Gras'): AKA,

Q'AN,

JAK, IXH,

MAM

[HUA

toom

'grass']

27. <tahumi> 'dumb'

('stumm'):

CHU,

TZO, TZE,

CHL,

CHN

[HUA

moo'"dumb']

28. <takin>

'money' ('Geld'):

MOCH,

TOJ,

Tzo, TZE, CHL,

CHN, CH'R,

YUC,

ITZ,

MOP,

LAC

[HUA

'gold,

silver' (Tapia

Zenteno 1985)]

29. <til>, <tiil> 'tapir' ('Tapir'):

MOCH,

CHT

[HUA

(not found)]

30. <tuhil ixlabon> 'flintstone' ('Feuerstein'): MOCH,

Q'AN,

JAK,

TOJ, TZO,

IXH

[HUA

k'amal t'uhub 'flintstone']

31. <tuxte>, <sucu tuxnen> 'small' ('klein'): MOCH,

Q'AN

[HUA

tzipiil 'little']

32. <tzam>

'nose' ('Nase'): K'ICH,

TZ'UT, KAQ, PQCH [HUA

thaam 'nose']

33. <tz'inte> 'manioc' ('Yuca (Manioca)'): MOCH,

JAK,

TOJ,

Tzo, TZE,

Q'EQ,

CHT,

CH'R

[HUA

t'inche 'manioc']

34. <uktak>

'brother'

('Bruder'):

CHU [HUA

ebchal 'brother']

35. <xepin>,

<xipin>

'grandmother' ('Grossmutter'):

ToJ [HUA

aach 'grandmother']

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2003 SOREN

WICHMANN AND CECIL H. BROWN 87

Notes

Acknowledgments. A precursor to this article was presented at the "Encuentro

Pueblos

y Fronteras,"

San Crist6bal

de Las Casas, Chiapas,

Mexico,

17-19 October

2001,

and has recently been published

(Wichmann

and Brown

2002). We would like to express

our gratitude to Roberto Zavala for his generous invitation to the meeting, and to Nora

England and John Haviland for comments offered there. We also thank Lyle Campbell

and John Robertson for helpful detailed responses to an earlier draft of the present

article.

Transcription. The orthography is that commonly used for transcribing Mayan

languages, generally following the norms of the Academia Maya de Guatemala. How-

ever, we write h whenever there is no phonological

contrast between h and j in a lan-

guage. The velar nasal is written ng and the high, central vowel of several languages is

written i. We have not made changes with regard

to different authors' uses of b or b' or

the marking vs. non-marking of initial glottal stops. Angle brackets (< >) indicate that

the original orthography

has been left unchanged.

1. There are thirty-one recorded Mayan languages. With one exception, contem-

porary

Mayan languages are spoken in a more or less contiguous

area of Guatemala and

southern Mexico. The exception is Huastec, an outlier language, spoken in northeast

Mexico.

2. Sometimes Q'eqchii'

forms are also found. These we also interpret as borrowings;

see section 4.

3. See Wichmann (1995:213-22) for an analysis of a Mixe-Zoquean

case where

Zoquean linguistic interference in Sayula Popoluca is explained by the marriage of

Zoquean

women to men from Sayula. Here loanwords

clustering in the domains of food

preparation and family are very prominent, providing a similar, but stronger, case for

intermarriage

as the explanation of general lexical interference.

4. In table 11, as well as appendix

C, some affixes and words are enclosed

by slashes.

The source for such items is Sedat (1955:15),

who explains that the slashes either mark

off linguistic material that complements the entry form and serves to narrow down its

meaning or mark off variant forms.

5. A case that is somewhat similar to the Q'eqchii'

one is that of Mocho',

a Greater

Q'anjob'alan

language that appears to have borrowed a number of forms from Eastern

Mayan languages, in particular from neighboring

Mamean languages. We have identi-

fied about seventy possible words

that, as far as the sources we have consulted indicate,

are uniquely shared by Mocho'

with one or more Eastern Mayan languages. In about a

quarter

of the cases, Mocho'

and Mam or Teko

uniquely share an item to the exclusion

all other Mayan languages. Since there appears also to have been some lexical influence,

albeit slight, from Greater

Q'anjob'alan

and Greater Tzeltalan languages into Mam, it is

difficult to establish the direction of borrowing

in the cases where Mocho' and Mam or

Teko are the only languages for which an item is attested. The case of Mocho'

is similar

to that of Q'eqchii'

in the sense that the two languages enter into both a more global and

a more local exchange. Just as Q'eqchii'

has a general Ch'olan influence and also enters

into a more local exchange with Mopan,

Mocho'

has an Eastern Mayan influence and a

more local exchange with Mam and Teko. The possibilities of Eastern Mayan lexical

interference in Mocho' and, to a lesser extent, Greater Q'anjob'alan and Greater Tzel-

talan interference in Mam, as well as the local Mocho'- Mam/Teko exchange situation

should be kept in mind when establishing hypotheses about reconstructions involving

these languages.

Nevertheless,

the amount of interference

does not seem to be as great as

in the three other cases discussed in this article, and the inferences

to be drawn from

the

data concerning

the social circumstances

involved are correspondingly

weak. Given that

the purpose

of this article is to try to arrive at conclusions

concerning

the sociolinguistic

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88 ANTHROPOLOGICAL

LINGUISTICS 45 NO. 1

background

of lexical borrowing

and that the Mocho' and Mam cases do not allow for

strong hypotheses in this regard, we prefer

to deal with these cases in another context.

6. This word, also found in Huastec, was almost certainly independently borrowed

into Chicomuceltec,

probably

from Tzeltalan.

7. For Chicomuceltec reflexes of Proto-Mayan

consonants, see Campbell

(1984:6).

8. In appendix

E, Ixhil is identified as the single possible

donor of <c'a>

'hammock'

Chicomuceltec, despite the fact that reflexes of Proto-Mayan *k'ajang - k'ajng are

found in many other Mayan languages, including some that are Chicomuceltec's

neighbors.

This is because the Ixhil form

in question,

k'a'a 'rope',

is the only one of these

reflexes that closely resembles phonologically

the Chicomuceltec word.

9. Huastec also shows k'ak'al 'heat, solar rays'. This suggests Proto-Huastecan

*k'ak'al

'sun', from which the Chicomuceltec

term could have derived.

If so, it is possible

that the Tzeltalan terms are loans from Chicomuceltec. However, for phonological

reasons relating to the preconsonantal h of the Tzeltal term (k'ahk'al), this is not

particularly likely.

10. Fox (1977:112)

proposes

that Huastec xitz' 'blood'

is a reflex of Proto-Mayan

*kik'

'blood'.

This, however, is almost certainly not the case. The expected Huastec (Potosino

dialect)

reflex of *kik'

is tzitz'. One could argue, as does a reviewer of this article,

that the

expected Huastec reflex changed

into xitz' as the result of avoidance of similar affricates

in the same word in certain environments. There is, however, little or no evidence for

such a conditioned change. Indeed, there are a number of Huastec words in which the

same affricates are found in the same word

(some containing tz(')and

the vowel i). In any

case, if Huastec xitz' were a reflex of Proto-Mayan *kik',

then Chicomuceltec <xich>

would also be a reflex of *kik',

implying

that Chicomuceltec

<chich> 'blood'

is a loan since

it would be phonologically

unexpected.

Of course, as noted in the text, Huastec xitz' and

Chicomuceltec <xich>

are reflexes of Proto-Huastecan *xich"

'blood'.

In addition, there

are similar forms in other Mayan languages that suggest that Proto-Huastecan

*xich' is

itself a reflex of Proto-Mayan

*xiihch"nerve, vein, blood'

(authors' reconstruction).

11. The vowel O in this reconstruction is an o-quality vowel of a special type we

(Brown

and Wichmann

2003) reconstruct

for Proto-Mayan.

In languages descended

from

Proto-Mayan,

reflexes of the special vowel tend to be similar to those of the Proto-Mayan

long vowel (i.e., *oo)

or to those of the Proto-Mayan

short vowel (i.e., *o).

For this reason,

we speculate that the special vowel may have been a vowel of intermediate length.

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Zones of intense linguistic contact and the situation of the Southern Caribbean

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2024

Anthony Grant

A number of areas on the world linguistic map show accretions of linguistic systems which have undergone intense exchange of features, including high degrees of (perforce) partial relexification, or extreme borrowing, in which preexisting features of a language are replaced by forms originating in other linguistic systems. These constitute a special kind of linguistic process, related to other language contact phenomena such as syntactic and semantic metatypy, cultural borrowing and unnecessary borrowing. Parts of the Southern Caribbean, specifically the former Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana, constitute area where such phenomena are common (McWhorter & Good 2012; Jacobs 2012; Parkvall & Jacobs 2023). This is a region in which contact-induced change has resulted in patterns of borrowing, some of which are quite rare, such as a form of the Core-Periphery division with a very slen