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Lacandon is a Yucatecan (Maya) language that is divided into two regional varieties -- northern Lacandon and southern Lacandon. Although mutually intelligible, each group considers the other's speech to be deficient, and at times, unintelligible (Bruce, p.c., 1992).
The language remains one of the least known of the Middle American languages (Campbell 1979: 928; Andy Hofling, p.c., 2000; Nora England, p.c., 2000). A grammar (Bruce 1968) is available for northern Lacandon. Grammatical sketches of southern Lacandon can be found in Baer and Baer (1953) and in Baer and Merrifield (1971, 1972). There is also an unpublished dictionary of southern Lacandon by Canger. Thompson (1977) provides a comparative study of Lacandon and Yucatec, and Swadesh (1961) gives a survey of Mayan. Comparative studies of Lacandon and other peninsular Maya languages are provided in Fisher (1973), Romero Castillo (1977), and Tozzer (1978 [1907]). Northern and southern Lacandon oral performances are examined in McGee (1997a, 1997b, 1987) and Boremanse (1981), respectively. More abundant texts from the northern Lacandon are published in Bruce (1974, 1975-1979 vol.2, 1976). view references»
Lacandon displays a consonant inventory similar to other Maya languages, having stops and affricates which occur in pulmonic and glottalic series. The system includes only one voiced obstruent, /b/. There are six vowel qualities. Vowel length is distinctive. more»
The clause structure is morphologically ergative; yet, the extent to which it is syntactically ergative needs yet to be determined (Christian Lehmann 2001, personal communication). Verbs take suffixes to indicate valency (especially transitivity, causation, reflexivity), tense, aspect, mood and person. Nouns take possessive suffixes. Both nouns and verbs are preceded by clitics of personal reference (possessor and subject, respectively). The verb complex is introduced by tense/aspect/mood markers that co-occur with corresponding suffixes on the verb. more»
Ethnobiological Inventories -Birds - Fish - Mammals -Reptiles - Insects - Plants
| University of Victoria|Department of Linguistics | Lacandon Cultural Heritage |Language |
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