Mopan language

Mopan (or Mopan Maya) is a language that belongs to the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan languages. It is spoken by the Mopan people who live in the Petén Department of Guatemala and in the Maya Mountains region of Belize. There are between three and four thousand Mopan speakers in Guatemala and six to eight thousand in Belize.Template:Sfn

The other Yucatecan languages are Yucatec, Lacandon, and Itzaʼ. Mopan began to diverge from the other Yucatecan languages at least one thousand years ago.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Distribution

Towns where Mopan is prominently spoken include San Luis, Poptún, Melchor de Mencos, and Dolores in Guatemala,Template:Sfn as well as San Antonio in the Toledo District of Belize.Template:Sfn

Phonology

Consonants

The following are the consonant sounds used by the Mopan Maya language (written with the International Phonetic Alphabet):Template:Sfn

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	ejective	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn
Affricate	plain		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	ejective		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative		Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Approximant			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Flap			Template:IPAlink

In addition, some sources list Template:IPAblink (the velar nasal) as a consonant sound in Mopan Maya.Template:Sfn

Vowels

The following are the vowel sounds of the Mopan Maya language:Template:Sfn

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink
Open		Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink   Template:IPAlink~Template:IPAlink

Orthography

Since the colonial period, Mopan Maya has been written with the Latin script. Historically, a wide range of orthographies have been used to represent the language,Template:Sfn although recently, the orthography has been standardized by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG).Template:Sfn The following table shows some of the orthographies that have been used to represent Mopan Maya:

IPA	ColonialTemplate:Sfn	KaufmanTemplate:Sfn	DienhartTemplate:Sfn	ALMGTemplate:Sfn
a~ɑ	a	a	a	a
ɘ	a	ä	ʌ	ä
aː~ɑː	a, aa	aa	aa	aa
ɘː				ää
ɓ	b	bʼ	b	bʼ
t͡ʃ	ch	ch	č	ch
t͡ʃʼ	cħ	chʼ	čʼ	chʼ
ɗ		dʼ	d	dʼ
ɛ~e	e	e	e	e
ɛː~eː	e, ee	ee	ee	ee
f				f
g				g
i~ɪ	i	i	i	i
iː~ɪː	i, ii	ii	ii	ii
h	h, j	j	j	j
k	c	k	c	k
kʼ	k	kʼ	cʼ	kʼ
l	l	l	l	l
m	m	m	m	m
n	n	n	n	n
o	o	o	o	o
oː	o, oo	oo	oo	oo
p	p	p	p	p
pʼ	pp, ꝑ	pʼ	pʼ	pʼ
ɾ	r	r	r	r
s	z, ç, s	s	s	s
t	t	t	t	t
tʼ	th, tħ	tʼ	tʼ	tʼ
t͡s	tz	tz	¢	tz
t͡sʼ	ɔ, dz	tzʼ	¢ʼ	tzʼ
u	u, v	u	u	u
uː	u, uu	uu	uu	uu
w	u, v	w	w	w
ʃ	x	x	š	x
j	y	y	y	y
ʔ		7	ʼ	ʼ

Grammar

Word order

The word order in Mopan is verb-object-subject (VOS), although subject-verb-object (SVO) is also common.Template:Sfn

Noun classifiers

Mopan has two noun classifiers that are used to indicate gender. However, use of these classifiers is not typical of grammatical gender. The two classifiers are (feminine) and (masculine), for example, , meaning "toad (masculine)". Use of these gender markers is atypical in several respects:Template:Sfn

• They are not used for most nouns.
• Gender is marked only in the noun and does not require agreement elsewhere in the sentence.
• Gender marking can sometimes be omitted.

Although the gender markers normally match the natural gender of the referent when denoting people, this is not always the case for non-human referents. For example, "parrot" () is typically feminine regardless of the sex of the animal.Template:Sfn

Numerals and numeral classifiers

Numerals in Mopan always include a numeral classifier which is added as a suffix. These classifiers indicate qualities about the referent. For example, round objects are indicated by the suffix , while long, thin objects are indicated by the suffix . The most commonly used numeral classifiers are , for inanimate objects, and , for people and animals. In all, there are over 70 numeral classifiers used in Mopan Maya.Template:Sfn

External links

• Mopán Maya New Testament 2004 Edition (archived)