Phonetics and phonology of Mopan Maya: segments, processes, and syllabic patterns

Languages of the Yucatecan branch –Yukatek, Lacandon, Itzaj, Mopan– have been hugely studied among the Mayan family; nevertheless, such linguistic descriptions and analysis have not given enough attention to phonetic and phonological levels, especially as regards to the phonetic description of the c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Sobrino Gómez, Martín
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:México
Institución:EL COLEGIO DE MÉXICO
Repositorio:Cuadernos de Lingüística de El Colegio de México
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:oai.cuadernoslinguistica.colmex.mx:article/176
Acceso en línea:https://cuadernoslinguistica.colmex.mx/index.php/cl/article/view/176
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:mopan
fonología
fonética
implosivas
vocales largas
patrones silábicos
Mopan
phonetics
implosives
eyectives
glotal stop
Descripción
Sumario:Languages of the Yucatecan branch –Yukatek, Lacandon, Itzaj, Mopan– have been hugely studied among the Mayan family; nevertheless, such linguistic descriptions and analysis have not given enough attention to phonetic and phonological levels, especially as regards to the phonetic description of the consonantal and vocalic segments of this group of languages. This paper presents a brief description and analysis of the phonetic and phonological levels of Mopan Maya. It is organized as follows. In §1, general information about the language is provided, including lexical loans of other Mayan languages. This section also includes the methodology of the investigation and some general information about the consultants whose speech is described here. In §2, the vowel system and its contrasts are presented. In §3, the consonantal system, its contrasts, and most prominent phonological processes are presented, although those that have been widely described by previous authors are not included –such as assimilation of nasals, vowel harmony and vowel dissimilation–. Section §4 describes the syllable structure of words in, and Section §5 focuses on acoustic analysis and phonetic description of the contrast between glottalized and non-glottalized obstruents, and the realizations of glottal stop. Lastly, some final considerations are offered.