Appendix I. A Short Sketch of Chuj Phonology, Grammar, and Syntax

Phonology

Chuj is a typical Mayan language in that it has a series of glottalized stops and affricates that parallel a set of plain consonants. It is unusual in preserving the velar nasal (nh) and an ancient contrast between velar and laryngeal fricatives (j and h, respectively) that has been lost or transformed in most languages. The velar nasal written nh is pronounced like the English ng as in sing, but unlike English ng it also occurs in word-initial position, with the same pronunciation. The velar fricative written j is pronounced like the Spanish consonant j, a voiceless velar fricative, similar to German ch in ach! The Chuj consonant h is not pronounced as a voiceless vocoid as it is in many languages, but as a voiced vocoidal onset or offglide of the same vocalic quality as the adjacent vowel (that is, ha’ “water” sounds like [aá’]). In a sense it is just a lengthening of the vowel, but it carries with it a deep rasp that merits its designation as a laryngeal fricative. In word-final position it is essentially lost phonetically; while it can be argued on structural grounds that there is no word that ends in a vowel and underlying hs are revealed if vowel-initial suffixes follow, this final h is—by convention—not written (although it will appear in morphophonemic transcription below).

A complete inventory of significant phonological units would include not only consonants and vowels, but stress, contour, and juncture phenomena as well. For a fuller discussion of this phonological system, see my dissertation (Hopkins 1967a) or its modernized version in the AILLA archives. The inventory of segmental phonemes is written here with the orthographic conventions of the Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala 1988). Elsewhere (in other presentations of my Chuj material), for greater visibility the glottal stop is written as <7> rather than <‘>, and I retain the structurally appropriate symbol <p’> for the glottalized bilabial stop rather than the externally imposed <b’>. The latter consonant is voiceless [p’] in initial and final positions and voiced [‘b’] only medially; between vowels it is frequently implosive [b”].

The native consonants of Chuj include the following: voiceless plain and voiceless glottalized stops and affricates at labial (p, b’), gingival (ts, ts’), alveolar (t, t’), velar (k, k’), and glottal (‘) points of articulation; voiceless fricatives at alveolar (s), alveopalatal (x), velar (j), and laryngeal (h) points of articulation; voiced nasals at bilabial (m), alveopalatal (n), and velar (nh) points of articulation; voiced semivowels at bilabial (w), and alveopalatal (y) points of articulation; a voiced alveolar lateral (l) and an alveolar flap (r).

The flap, found mostly but not exclusively in loanwords, varies with the Guatemalan Spanish voiceless retroflex fricative (like the final allophones of r/rr in many Spanish dialects). Likewise, f and the voiced stops b, d, and g occur only in words taken from Spanish and vary in their articulation according to the acculturation of the speaker.

The vowels of Chuj are high and low front vowels i and e, low central a and low and high back rounded vowels o and u. Strong stress in words is generally on the vowel of the root, with secondary stress on final syllables. While marking stress is not part of the official orthography and is not necessary for native speakers, in other works—and in the text analysis below—I have added accent marks on the strong syllables to help the nonnative reader appreciate the rhythm of speech.

Most roots are consonant-vowel-consonant monosyllables (CVC), although more complex patterns are not rare (CVCVC, especially CVjVC and CV’VC, and even CVCV’VC). There is a common pattern of alternation between CV’VC and CVC shapes that suggests an underlying *CV’C shape for many lexical items, that is, /lu’um ~ lum/ “earth,” /k’e’en ~ k’en/ “stone.” Vowel sequences (VV) are relatively rare except where a consonant has been lost in rapid speech, and consonant clusters (CC) occur most frequently at morpheme boundaries.

There are regular morphophonemic reductions in consonant sequences that result from adjacent morphemes: ‘-C and h-C reduce to C alone; C-h goes to C except that b’-h becomes w; ts-’ becomes ts’; word final ‘ and h are frequently lost; t-x may become tch; ch-x becomes tx or tch. In verbal prefixation, the aspect marker ts-becomes s before consonants (other than h or ‘), and this s assimilates to following ch or ch’ as xch and xch’.

Morphology

Root morphemes may be classified into some six root classes, although some roots cross class lines and others are difficult to classify. This classification is based on inflectional and derivational affixation, that is, the occurrence of the root with different sets of affixes. Abbreviations in small capitals (TV) are taken from Aissen et al. (2017:vii–x) and include those used in the text analysis, below.

Verb roots are CVC in shape and can be divided into transitive, intransitive, and positional verb roots. Transitive roots (VTR, TV) and intransitive roots (VIN, ITV) may be inflected for tense/aspect and person (subjects and objects) without derivation, but positional verb roots (VPO, POS) always occur in complex stems.

Transitive verb roots are unambiguously identified by their co-occurrence with the suffixed clitic-hV’ ~-’Vh, -hV’ (the latter follows roots that end in ‘, the former occurs elsewhere): pi’-’ah> pi’ah, “to take the kinks out of something”; pih-ha’> piha’ “to stretch something”; tib’-ha’> tiwa’, “to carry something cylindrical”; b’o’-’oh> b’o’oh, “to fix something”; b’ol-ho’> b’olo’, “to roast something”; ts’ul-hu’> ts’ulu’, “to peel something.” A small set of transitive verb roots do not take these affixes, but take the suffix-ej; some verbs may occur with either: ‘uk’u’ ~ ‘uk’ej, “to drink something”; lo’oh ~ lo’ej, “to eat soft things”; ‘utej, “to do something”; payej, “to dry maize by heating.”

Intransitive verb roots are unambiguously identified by their co-occurrence with the suffixed clitic -(ih) without derivation of the CVC root; this morpheme also occurs after derived stems that will be inflected with intransitive affixes. It is realized as -ih if no word or phrase follows; otherwise it is deleted: b’at-(ih)> b’atih, “to go”; ts-ø-b’at-(ih)> sb’atih “someone goes”; ts-ø-b’at-(ih) winh> sb’at winh, “he goes”; cham-(ih)>chamih “to die”; ix ø-cham-(ih)> ix chamih, “someone died”; ix ø-cham-(ih) winh> ix cham winh, “he died.”

Positional verb roots deal with the specification of positions, shapes, aggregations, and other physical features of objects and people, that is, functions that are associated with adjectives in many other languages: hap, “to be a big open hole”; senh, “to be circular”; tonh, “to be thick and ugly”; tob’, “to be a bundle of flexible stick-like things.” Some VPO roots are distributive, indicating features that are distributed across a number of objects; others are nondistributive, indicating features that are concentrated on a single object. The two contrast most sharply in derived numeral classifiers: cha’ pots-anh lu’um, “two dents in a (single) clay pot” [nondistributive]; cha’ pil-anh lu’um, “two ball-shaped pieces of clay” [distributive].

The sole “existential verb” (VEX, EXIST) is ay, to be. It takes only -an (extended action, DUR) for derivation and is not inflected for tense/aspect, but can be inflected for subject, negative, intensive, interrogative, and reportative, among others. Inflection for personal subject is like that of stative stems (see below). The morpheme ay is not actually a verb; it is an existential predicator that plays the role of a verb in sentence composition, as do stative stems.

Noun roots (N) are of varied shapes, including CVC, CV’(V)C, CVCVC, CVCV’C, and CVCCVC. Spanish loanwords have added myriad shapes to this inventory. Four subclasses of noun roots can be distinguished by distinct patterns of derivation and inflection: substantives, adjectives, numerals, and noun classifiers.

Substantives are difficult to characterize, as they form many minor subsets. In general, substantives are noun roots that may be inflected for person (possession), but not for tense/aspect. In syntactic constructions, substantives are typically preceded by a noun classifier that specifies their inherent nature (that is, functioning like gender markers, but there are more than a dozen “genders”; see Hopkins 2012b for a discussion of their origin). Some substantives do not occur possessed, and some are not associated with noun classifiers.

Adjectives (ADJ) are generally of the shape CVC, but there are some exceptions (that is, ya(‘a)x, green). Adjectives do not take inflection for person or tense/aspect; they are often derived by the desinence -b’-(ih) to form intransitive verb stems, that is, yax-b’-(ih), yaxb’ih, “to turn green.” A large subset of adjectives, the color terms, combine with unique derivational suffixes to describe aspects of color.

Numerals (NUM) are of the shapes CVC, CVCVC and CVCCVC. They may occur underived with affixes of person, forming ordinals, but not with affixes of tense/aspect. They are distinguished from all other classes by their occurrence with a unique set of derivational suffixes to form the names of time periods and cycles. Syntactically, numerals are distinguished by their unique occurrence before numeral classifiers. The Chuj numeral system is vigesimal, based on cycles of twenty. Number roots represent the values one through twelve and even multiples of twenty. All other values are represented by compound stems.

Noun classifiers (NCLF) form a small but syntactically important set of nouns. In general, they are recruited from the set of substantives, but there are exceptions. They have functions like gender markers (determinatives) and pronouns in other languages. As the former, unstressed, they precede nouns referring to material objects to specify the inherent nature of the referents; as the latter, stressed, they substitute for the nouns in contexts where the referent is understood. The inventory of noun classifiers is as follows:

ix, female beings, human or mythological;

winh, male beings, human or mythological, and including some introduced diseases;

nok’, animals and animal products;

ixim, maize and other grains and their products;

ch’anh, vines and their products;

te’, woody-stemmed plants and their products;

anh, herbaceous plants and their products;

lu(‘u)m, earth, earthen products, and geographical features;

k’e(‘e)n, stone, metals, and their products;

k’apak, cloth and cloth products;

ats’am, salt and its products;

ha’, liquids and hydrological features;

yab’il, illnesses;

k’inal, rains;

nayleh, sheet-like plastic (<Spanish nailon, nylon).

From reports of this system the inventory appears to vary slightly from speaker to speaker. The putative origin of this category, Chiapanec, a neighboring Otomanguean language, is discussed in Hopkins (2012b); semantic categories and lexemes are native, but the grammatical usage seems to be borrowed. Among Mayan languages, noun classifiers are basically limited to the languages of the Cuchumatanes (Chujean, Kanjobalan, and some Mam), but see Grinevald Craig (1990) for a broader view. Colonial data suggest numeral classifiers may have occurred in other languages as well but have since disappeared.

Onomatopoetic roots (ONOM) constitute a small class of roots that appear to result from onomatopoeia, including the imitation of sounds from inanimate sources, animal cries, calls to animals, and exclamations: pem, bang!; tit, the sound of a car horn; ch’op, the sound of a stick being pulled out of the mud; ch’ek, the call of a grackle; pix, call to a dog; ay, exclamation of pain, hi’, affirmative response; hay, hailing call.

Particle roots (PAR) are distinguished from all other classes by the lack of derivation to form verbs, nouns, or other stem classes. Native particles are of the shape CVC, but there are many particles introduced from Spanish that have varied shapes. Some particles and particle clusters occur as modifiers of verb phrases. The most common particle, marked below as locative (LOC) is t’a(y), “in, at, to, from, with”; this sole preposition introduces oblique phrases in verbal constructions (locatives, instrumentals, and so forth, but not subject or object).

Inflectional Morphology

Chuj has an impressive inventory of pre-and post-fixed inflectional and derivational morphemes. They can be divided into three overlapping sets based on the nature of the roots and stems to which they are attached: intransitive, transitive, and positional verbs. The latter resemble in their inflection the single existential verb.

Following general Mayanist usage, pronominal affixes for subjects and objects are labeled here by numbers for persons (1, 2 and 3 = first, second and third person; sg = singular; pl = plural; note that 3sg = 3pl, and may be marked simply 3). The two sets of pronominal markers are designated by letters: Set A = subjects of transitive verbs (VTR) and possessors of nouns; Set B = subjects of intransitive verbs (VIN) and objects of VTR. Thus, A1sg is first person singular “I” (as subject of VTR); B1sg is “I” (as subject of VIN), “me” (as object of VTR), and “my” (as possessor of nouns).

In general, the inflectional prefixes are as follows (in sets according to their relative distance from the following or preceding stem):

Verbal suffixes include the following (in sets according to their relative distance from the stem):

The inventory of affixes surrounding stative stems is more limited than the above, but the meanings and functions are the same for corresponding morphemes:

The stems that are inflected by the affixes listed above come from verb, noun, positional, and onomatopoetic roots. Verb roots may be transitive (VTR), intransitive (VIN), positional (VPO), or existential (VEX) verbs. Noun roots include substantive (N), adjective (ADJ), numeral (NUM) and noun classifier (NCLF) nouns. Positional roots may be distributive or nondistributive. There is only one existential root, ay “to be.”

Affixes of directional motion are very common. In general, the prefixed affixes of directional motion modify the action of the subject (that is, to do something while passing by). The set of directional motion suffixes closest to the stem modify the action itself (that is, to do something in a lateral motion), and those more distant relate to the movements of the actor (while moving sideways).

The Formation of Stems from Verbal Roots

The derivation of roots to form stems of various classes is accomplished through suffixation of single suffixes or desinences (common combinations of suffixes). The classification of the resulting forms is based on their inflectional characteristics (see above).

(1) Transitive Verb Stems Derived from Transitive Verb Roots. The following suffixes and desinences (DER) derive transitive verb stems from transitive roots:

(2) Intransitive Verb Stems Derived from Transitive Verb Roots:

(3) Nouns Derived from Transitive Verb Roots:

(4) There are very few derivations formed from intransitive verb roots. Many of these forms suggest bivalence of the verb root VIN/VTR, since the derivations are found in transitive verb derivations. Known examples include the following:

Stems Derived from Positional Verb Roots. Unlike the members of other verb classes, positional verb roots never occur underived. Perhaps as a consequence, there are more derivational suffixes and desinences for the derivation of positional verb roots than there are for any other verb class.

(5) Transitive Verb Stems Derived from Positional Verb Roots (note that all are causative in meaning):

(6) Intransitive Verb Stems Derived from Positional Verb Roots. Note that the majority refer to displaying or taking on the characteristics indicated by the positional verb root. Many involve some form of reduplication, partial or complete, a common feature of positional verbs in Mayan languages.

(7) Nouns Derived from Positional Verb Roots:

(8) Other Stems Derived from Positional Verb Roots:

(9) Verbal Stems Derived from Noun Roots:

Compound Verb Stems

Several types of verb stems include more than one root. The verbs of directional motion, treated here as verbal inflection, could be considered parts of compound verbs, but the changes in meaning caused by their use are minor. Four other kinds of compound verbs have been noted. One is causative, one incorporates Spanish infinitives into the verbal system; another incorporates noun stems into the verbal construction. A final type, not fully understood because of its syntactic peculiarities, is based on verbs of directional motion and incorporates adverbial stems into the compound verb.

Causative compound verb stems are based on the transitive verb ak’, to do something. Following the transitive root is an intransitive verb stem with various suffixes. The suffix -an indicates on-going action. The desinence on the main (first) verb -n-aj-(ih)/ forms passive constructions, and the suffix -ok may occur in place of -(ih): ak’-jenhwok, “to cause something to fly” (<jenh-w-(ih), “to fly”); ak’-k’ewanok, “to cause something to rise” (<k’e’-w-(ih), “to rise”); ak’naj-’achanwok, to be caused to bathe (<ach-an-w-(ih), “to bathe”).

Spanish infinitives are incorporated into the verb stem by suffixing them to the verb stem ak’(an): ak’an-despedir, “to say goodbye”; ak’an-ganar, “to earn something”; ak’an-konsegir, “to acquire something.” The set of incorporated Spanish verbs is probably an open set.

The third type of compound verb stem incorporates noun objects into the verb stem; the transitive verb root is suffixed with -w-(ih) to form an intransitive stem, and the following noun is obligatorily unstressed and cannot be inflected: páywih-nhal, to dry maize by heating (<VTR pay-ej, “to dry something by heating”; and N nhal, “maize ear”); áwwih-’awal, “to plant maize” (<VTR aw, “to plant something,” and N awal, “cornfield”).

The final type of compound verb stem has syntactic complications. The compounds are usually based on a verb of directional motion, and the second component is an intransitive verb stem derived by a number of suffixes. The complications—too complex to be discussed here— arise in that the second element may occur in front of the main verb as well as suffixed, and the inflectional patterns vary from transitive to intransitive. For a discussion, see Hopkins (1970b).

Compound Noun Stems

Three types of compound noun stems are formed by the combination of (1) a substantive, adjective, numeral or noun classifier root with a following substantive noun; (2) a positional or transitive verb root with a following substantive noun; and (3) two or more numeral roots and stems. Two attested stems appear to combine numeral and positional roots to form a compound verb stem. Conklin (1962:122–23) suggested that compounds can be divided into unitary and composite lexemes: “unitary lexemes . . . no segments of which may designate categories which are identical to, or subordinate to, those designated by the forms in question”; and “composite lexemes . . . one or more segments of which, under specified conditions, may (a) designate the same categories as those designated by the forms in question (abbreviation), or (b) designate categories superordinate to those designated by the forms in question (generalization).” Unitary lexemes are either simple (unsegmentable) or complex (segmentable).

Substantive noun plus substantive noun compounds can be either head-initial composite lexemes, attribute-initial composite lexemes, or complex unitary lexemes. Head-initial composite lexemes include ti’-k’u’, “blanket hole” (<“edge/lip” and “blanket”), stsa’-taj, “pine sap” (<“excrement” and “pine”), mak’lab’-much, “pole used for striking down birds” (<“something used for striking” and “bird”). Attribute-initial composite lexemes include ts’um-k’e’en, “sheet tin” (<“leather/hide” and “stone/metal”), ch’ow-ku’uk, “a kind of squirrel” (<“rat” and “squirrel”), chej-chan, “a mythical snake” (<“deer” and “snake”). Complex unitary lexemes include tanh-patik, “poor person” (<“ash” and “back”). chich-ti’, “hare-lipped person” (<“hare” and “lip”), k’uxum-woton, “weasel” (<“eater” and “button”), t’oyum-’une’, “oppossum” (<“carrier of something in a pocket,” and “child”).

Adjective noun plus substantive noun compounds are attribute-initial composite lexemes: tul-kamix, “short shirt” (<“short” and “shirt”), chak-choj,/ “mountain lion” (<“red” and “puma”), nit-k’anal, “Venus” (<“large” and “star”).

Numeral noun plus substantive noun compounds are rare, and their types are mixed: cha’-jaj, “trachea” (<“two” and “throat”), ho’-k’ante’, “the place name Ocanté” (<“five” and “birch tree”), jun-’ix, widow (<“one” and “woman”).

Noun classifier plus substantive noun compounds appear to be fossilized phrases; stress on the noun classifiers varies (although they are unstressed when functioning as demonstratives): k’ina-nhab’, “rain” (<“rain classifier” and “rain”), anh-k’ultak, “brushland” (<“herbaceous plant classifier” and “brushland”).

Positional root plus substantive noun compounds are attribute-initial composite and unitary complex lexemes: konh-te’, “arch” or “bow” (<“arched” and “wood”), ij-te’, prop (<“leaning against something” and “wood”), t’en-ti’, “hairless lip or chin” (<“bare” and “mouth/lip”), b’el-jom, “a type of large gourd” (<“split lengthwise” and “gourd bowl”); b’ik-nhej, “oppossum” (<“too thin for its length” and “tail”), b’ech-k’ab’, “hand wave” (<“overhanging” and “hand”); t’en-jolom, “bald person” (<“bare” and “head”).

Transitive verb plus substantive noun compounds are unitary composite lexemes: kol-k’ab’, “ring (jewelry)” (<“defend” and “hand”), ch’iy-’eh, “canine tooth” (<“rip into strips” and “tooth”), jal-te’, “cage” (<“weave” and “wood”), nits-k’uh, “plant name” (<“move something” and “sun”).

Numeral plus numeral noun compounds form numeral stems whose value is greater than twelve; ox-lajunh, “thirteen” (<“three” and “ten”), b’alunh-lajunh, “nineteen” (<“nine” and “ten”), jun-winak, “twenty” (<“one” and “score”), cha’-winak, “forty” (“two” and “score”), jun-k’al, “four hundred” (“one” and “four hundred”). A few compounds formed by complete or partial reduplication and found only in words relating to the passage of time are chab’-chab’, “every two” (“every other one” <“two” and “two”), as in xch’ab’chab’ k’uhal, “every other day”; s-laj-lajunh-ej-ih-al, “every ten days” (<“ten”).

Numeral noun plus numeral classifier compounds are rare; only two examples are known. The first is ox-t’ilanh, “the three stars of Orion’s belt” (<“three” and numeral classifier t’il-anh), but t’il refers to “lines of things,” not “things in a line.” It is possible that this is a fossilized compound that originally referred to the triangle formed by one waist star and two knee stars, since this constellation is recognized in Classic Maya epigraphy as the First Hearth, three stones with a fire (the Orion Nebula) inside the triangle; the three-stone hearth is a Mesoamerican culture trait. The shift to Orion’s belt may be influenced by the corresponding Spanish constellation, The Three Marys (las tres Marías), sometimes The Three Kings (los tres reyes). The second compound is jun-kot, “andasolo, a solitary male coatí” (younger males are gregarious, older males solitary) (<“one” and the numeral classifier for “standing on four legs”).

Phrase Structure

The syntax of Chuj sentences involves four kinds of phrases: verb, stative, particle, and noun phrases. The first three are relatively simple, but noun phrases are very complex. The verb phrase consists of an inflected verb stem; minimal inflection is for personal subject. All other inflection is optional. If a verb is inflected for anything other than subject, it is inflected for tense/aspect. The stative phrase consists of an inflected stative stem. Like the verb phrase, minimal inflection is for subject, and all other inflection is optional, except that stative phrases are not inflected for tense/aspect. The nucleus of a stative phrase is often a substantive or adjectival noun phrase recruited to act as predicate. Particle phrases consist of clusters of particles that have no head-attribute structure; they are difficult to gloss in isolation, just as individual particles are difficult to gloss: hanheja’, (ha’-nhej-ha’), “just like that”; tatoh (tah-toh), “still” or “yet”; matoh (ma’-toh), “but if.” These phrases often introduce noun or verb phrases, but are not the heads of the noun or verb phrase.

Noun phrases consist minimally in an uninflected noun stem, which may in turn be an underived noun root. The maximum complexity of noun phrases involves embedded sentences that function as nouns. Other than simple nouns, in terms of their composition there are at least seven types of noun phrases, as follows.

Noun classifier phrases consist of a noun classifier and its associated noun or noun phrase, which may be an embedded sentence. The noun classifier in these constructions remains unstressed (as opposed to the stressed forms serving as pronouns): nok’ chítam, “the (animal class) pig”; heb’ nok’ hin chítam, “my (animal class) pigs”; nok’ sts’úmal sk’én winh yúk’tak smám wính, “the (animal class [leather]) scabbard of the knife of his father’s brother” (enclosing the noun classifier phrase winh yúk’tak smám wính, “his father’s brother”); winh smúnlaj t’a sk’éxan k’áb’, “a (human class) man who works with his left hand.”

Possessive noun phrases consist of the possessed noun and its possessor: sjolom spenek winh, “the head of his knee”; syempuhal kak’an’och kawal, “the time we work in the cornfield.”

Two types of enumerative noun phrases involve numeral roots and stems. The first is composed of a numeral root or compound numeral stem and a numeral classifier stem. The numerical part may be suffixed with -tak distributive, or followed by an adjective, that is, kotak, “small,” niwan, “large (singular),” or niwak, “large (plural)”: wak b’ech, “six handfuls”; waktak b’ech, “six handfuls each”; cha’ kotak patsanh, “two small fiber bundles”; jun niwan patsanh, “one large fiber bundle.” The second type of enumerative noun phrases is composed of a noun stem derived from a numeral root by the derivation -e’, and a following noun referring to a set of measures; these constructions may be suffixed by -ok, “approximately,” or with particles, especially nhej, “only,” toh, “still”: wake’ kintal, “six hundredweights” (<Spanish quintal); wake’ok kintal, “about six hundredweights”; oxe nhej b’arah, “only three varas (a Spanish measure of about thirty-three inches).”

Quantitative noun phrases consist of one of the preceding enumerative noun phrases and a following noun that expresses what is being quantified: wake kintal tut, “six quintales of beans”; waktak b’ech anh stut heb’ winh, “six handsful each of their (plant class) beans”; wak wanh winh smunlaj t’ah sk’exan k’ab’, “six (human class) men who work with their left hands.”

Demonstrative noun phrases consist of a noun phrase, usually a noun classifier phrase, followed by either of the adjectival nouns chi’, “there” or tik, “here,” indicating relative proximity: winh chi’, that man; heb’ ix ix tik, “these women”; ixim wawal tik, “this cornfield of mine”; heb’ winh slechank’eta chi’, “those men who dip out [the salt water].”

Any noun phrase other than embedded sentences may be preceded or followed, or both, by particles, to form a particle noun phrase. Particles commonly preceding noun phrases are ha’, “demonstrative”; t’ah ~ t’ay, “locative or oblique”; te, “intensive,” and mas, “comparative.” Common postposed particles are xoh, “already,” toh, “still,” and nhej, “only”: ha ta’, “in that place”; t’a pinkah, “in/at/to/from the plantations”; t’a jun xoh k’uhtik, “today (on this other day)”; mas wach’, “better (more good)”; wach’ xoh, “already well”; te pural, “with much difficulty,” ich nhej ta’, “in this way alone.”

Embedded sentence noun phrases differ from independent sentences only in simplicity; they are not preceded by particle phrases or conjunctions, but begin with the topic phrase or a later phrase (see below). The independent sentence smunlaj winh anima t’a swach’ k’ab’, “the man works with his right hand,” will appear as an embedded sentence as winh anima smunlaj t’a swach’ k’ab’, “the man who works with his right hand.” Embedded sentences may occur in any of the noun phrase positions of the sentence (topics, preposed adverbials, direct objects, subjects, or post-posed adverbials). Examples are (embedded sentences in brackets): ha xo winh [ayem k’och chi’], xcha’an lu’um, “the other man [(who) is down there on top] receives the earthen pot”; ha [skomunlajih], skoman ket’b’eyum, “when[we work], we hire our helpers”; yah [hin xit’ek’] yuj nhab’ t’a ketsal, “painful was [my trip (I went and returned)] because of the rain at Quetzal”; ay b’aj [smunlaj winh], “there is a place where [he works]”; ixin na’elta [ixin b’at t’a wariyah], “I thought about [going to Barillas (I went to Barillas)].”

Sentence Structure

The Basic Word Order of a Chuj sentence is VOS, a Main phrase (Verb or stative) followed by Noun phrases representing the Object (if the verb is transitive) and Subject of the sentence. This cluster of phrases may be preceded and/or followed by Adverbial phrases. Either of the Object and Subject Phrases can be fronted to a Topic phrase position before the Adverbial Phrase (often leaving a noun classifier in the post-verbal position). Finally, this complex of phrases may be preceded by an Introductory phrase and/or followed by a Clitic phrase. The complete set of phrases as sentence elements is thus: Introductory, Topic, Adverbial, Main, Object, Subject, Adverbial, and Clitic.

The Introductory phrase position is filled by particle and noun phrases, including a large number of items borrowed from Spanish. This position functions to link sentences, that is, it serves as a sentence conjunction. Loan words include peroh, “but”; porke, “because”; por esoh, “for this reason”; keh, a subordinating conjunction (from Spanish que); komoh, “as, since”; ih, “and”; entonseh, “then”; yakeh,” since, while,” and bwenoh, “well.” Native items include tah (toh), “if”; xal, “and”; hok xoh, “but, or”; ma toh, “but, or”; waya’, “also”; wach’ chom, “even though”; yos, “and,” and especially in narratives, yuj chi’, “for that reason”: [yuj chi’], ha’ tsonh munlajih, skoman ket’b’eyum, “[for that reason], when we work, we hire helpers.”

The Topic phrase position is filled by a noun phrase, the topicalization of the post-verbal Subject or Object phrase. Two Topic phrases that do not have the same referent may co-occur, for example, an indirect and direct object: [ha’ heb’ winh slechank’etah], [jun sentawuh] skotup jun jun ch’ub’, “To [those men who dip out (the salt)], [one cent] we pay them, for each pot.”

The preposed Adverbial phrase is filled by one or more particle or noun phrases, the latter usually an embedded sentence or a locative phrase introduced by t’ah ~ t’ay. Examples are: entonseh [mas nhej] sb’at t’ah yib’anh, “then [even more] it comes down on us”; ha’ [t’ah spatik lum pinkah], ha’ ta’ ix pitzwih winh, “There [in plantation country], there he grew up.”

The Main phrase position is filled by a verb or stative phrase. Stative phrases are noun phrases (including adjectival phrases) that have been recruited as predicates, taking the place of a verb: [te niwak] lum ch’ub’, “[Very heavy] (are) the pots”; [nab’a ha’] atz’am, “[Pure liquid] (is) the salt”; [ladinu] heb’ winh chi’, “[Ladinos] those men (are).”

The Object phrase position, which occurs only if a transitive verb phrase fills the Main phrase position, is filled by one or more Noun phrases that agree in person with the pronominal object of the verb; the Noun phrase may be an embedded sentence: skuchan [lum] heb’ winh, “The men carry [the (earthen) pot]”; ol ko t’okank’e [lum ko lu’um], “We will turn [our land]”; ol wala’ [chajtil skutej sk’etah atz’am atz’am], “I will talk about [how we bring out the salt].”

The Subject phrase position is filled by a Noun phrase that agrees in person with the pronominal subject of the Main phrase. If the detailed Subject noun phrase has been fronted to Topic, the Subject phrase position may be filled by a pronoun or the corresponding noun classifier: [ha heb’ winh t’unhum ch’ub’ chi’], chekel nhej [heb’ winh] “[Those men who carry the pots], chosen (are) [they]”; [ha ha ha’], seb’nhej ko k’echan chanh ha’, “[That water], easily we can lift [it].”

The post-posed Adverbial phrase position is filled by one or more Noun phrases. Combinations of time and place, or two adverbials of place, have been observed. Phrases in this oblique phrase position are often introduced by t’ah ~ t’ay, “at, in, on,” etc.; et’, “with,” or other subordinating phrases: syamchaj nok’ [ku’uj], “The animals are caught [by us]”; ix yak’an despedir winh [t’ay hin], “He said goodbye [to me]”; sb’at winh [chonhab’], “He goes [to town].”

The Clitic phrase position is filled by b’i’ ~ b’ihan, which only occurs if the sentence is terminal, that is, if it is not an embedded sentence or is not followed by another sentence linked by a conjunction. In conversation b’i’ functions like a sentence tag, similar to English “Okay?,” a request for affirmation: hin b’at het’, b’i’, “I’m going with you, okay?” In narrations, a gloss of “so” is perhaps appropriate: yos, ol ko tsikanpax lum, och ixim kawal, b’ihan, “And, we turn the earth again, our cornfield comes in, so”; t’ah jun k’uh, skotsol k’ak’ t’ah sti’tak lum, cha’an sk’ak’al lum, stsab’at lum, b’ihan, “The next day, we set fire to the edges of the field, so the land catches fire, it burns up, so.”

A second phrase final clitic, jun, may occur at the end of any phrase but is most frequent at the end of embedded sentences that are linked to a following sentence by conjunctions: xal tah ma’ay [jun], skona’eltah, “And if it is not, [well], we think about it”; eh, tato te k’en lum[jun], sk’enal sat lum, max yallaj ko pilan yip, “And if the earth is very rocky, [well], (if) its surface is rocky, we can’t make haste.”