Native to Guatemala Ethnicity Itza people ISO 639-3 itz | Region Petén Native speakers (12 cited 1986) | |
Language family Mayan
Yucatecan
Mopan–Itza
Itza' | ||
Itza' (also Itza or Itzaj) is a language in the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan language family.
Contents
History of Itza'
The government banned the speaking of Itzá in the 1930s and two generations of Itzá Maya have grown up learning only Spanish. The late 1980s brought an increase in interest among Maya people, including the Itzá, in preserving their cultural heritage. There have been academies set up to help teach the Mayan language
Consonants
The following chart shows the consonant phonemes of Itza:
Additionally, the phonemes /d, g, f, v, r, ɲ/ have been adopted from Spanish, and are present only in loanwords in modern Itza.
Vowels
The following chart shows the vowel phonemes of Itza:
Related languages
The other languages in the Yucatecan branch are Yucatec, Lakantun, and Mopan. All Yucatecan languages are closely linked with each other. However, people speaking Itza' and those speaking Yucatec have difficulties understanding each other. There are 12 different branches of Mayan language, all with sub families like Itza'.
Status
Today, it is spoken only by a few elderly adults in communities to the north of Lake Petén Itzá in northern Guatemala, such as San José. It is nearly extinct. The Itza ethnic group now almost all speak Spanish, and are not fluent in Itza'.
Geographic Distribution
Map of Maya Languages in Guatemala
Vocabulary
The categories tense, aspect, and mood are interwoven in Itzaj Maya verbal and adverbial morphosyntax. Itzaj narrative discourse suggests a division between what a person knows from personal experience centered in one's home and town (the actual), and what is less known, but imaginable, further away in space-time.