13th Annual Maya at the Playa Conference, Flagler County, Florida, September 28th, 2019

Classic Mayan Accent

from a comparative perspective

Marc Zender, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University

 Mayan Languages
Wasteko
†Kabil
Yukateko
Lakantun
Itzaj (endangered)
Mopán
Ch'orti' (endangered)
†Ch'olti'
Ch'ol
†Acalan Chontal
Yokot'an
Wasteko †Tzendal
Tzeltal
Tzotzil
Tojolab'al
Chuj
Q'anjob'al
Akateko
Popti'
Mochó
Tuzanteco
Teco
Jakaltek
Mam
Awakateko
Ixhil
Uspanteko
K'ichee'
Sipakapenyo
†Sakapulteko
Tz'utujil
Kaqchikel
Poqomam
Poqomchi'
Q'eqchi'
 Distribution of Mayan Languages in the
the 16th and 17th centuries (according to
missionary accounts)

Wasteko

C H O L T I
(MANCHE)

1. †KABIL
2. AWAKATEK
3. TAPACHULTEK (non-M)
4. TZ'UTUJIL
The Mayan Language Family
(Kaufman 2017:66-67, figure 4.2a-b)
Accent (or stress) refers to a relative emphasis or prominence
given to a vowel within a syllable, often by increasing its
volume, raising its pitch, lengthening the vowel, and/or fully
pronouncing the vowel. Unstressed vowels, by contrast, can be
subject to reduction, alteration, and omission.

Compare:
English photograph /ˈfoʊtəgræf/ vs. photographer /fəˈtɒɡrəfər/

Because of such developments, accentuation has long been
recognized as playing a critical role in language change.
Some languages have fixed stress, meaning that the accent
regularly falls on a particular syllable, such as the final syllable
(Armenian), the penult (Nahuatl, Quechua), the antepenult
(Macedonian), or the first syllable (Finnish, Icelandic).

Other languages place the accent on different syllables. When
predictable, as in Classical Latin, the language is said to have a
regular stress rule. If unpredictable, as in English and Spanish,
we say that the language has variable or phonemic stress.

Some writing systems carefully record accents that deviate

from expectations, as in Spanish. Other scripts are ambiguous
in this regard, relying on context and readers’ knowledge of the
language to fill in this important detail. English, for example,
does not mark accentuation at all, and therefore makes heavy
demands on the reader.
 Classical Latin accent is completely governed by two rules:

1. two-syllable words are accented on the first syllable

e.g., arma, canō, ecce, Caesar, manē, Rōma, virum

2. words of three or more syllables accent the penult if it

is long/heavy, accent antepenult if penult is short/light
e.g., rēgīna, Centaurus, dēstringō, dominus, faciō, ambulō

In Latin, a long/heavy syllable is considered to be either a long

vowel, a diphthong, or any vowel followed by two consonants.

Clitics like -que ‘and’ and -vel ‘or’ do not affect accentuation.
Thus in, e.g., Senātus Populusque Rōmānus the stress remains
on the initial syllable of populus despite the added syllable.
Unmarked Spanish accents follow two rules

1. words ending in -V, -n, or -s stress the penult

e.g., todo, inteligente, el examen, joven, lunes, los calcetines

2. words ending in any other consonant stress the ultima

e.g., comer, la ciudad, el profesor, el animal, Madrid

The numerous exceptions are marked with an acute accent

e.g., rápido, está, canción, también, los exámenes, inglés

el árbol, la cárcel, el césped, débil ...

Accentuation thus distinguishes otherwise ambiguous forms:

e.g., célebre famous (adj.)

celebre he celebrates (v.)
celebré I celebrated (v. + pa.t.)
Although both unmarked and highly variable, English accents
do follow some general guidelines

1. most two-syllable nouns/adjectives take initial stress

e.g., samples, carton, purple, rainy, china, happy

2. most two-syllable verbs/prepositions take final stress

e.g., relax, receive, direct, among, aside, between

Several minimal pairs reflect these rules

e.g., present a gift (n.)

present to give s.th. to s.o. (v.)
object something you can see/touch (n.)
object to disagree (v.)
insult a pejorative or belittling word/action (n.)
insult to belittle someone (v.)
Dialects of the same language can vary in accentuation. Thus,
Latin American Spanish video still follows the original stress
rule, while peninsular Spanish now has the marked form vídeo.
Similarly, the English word laboratory retains the original initial
stress in American English /læbɹətɔɹi/ but has shifted its stress
in Britain to /ləbɒɹətɹi/, resulting in differential weakening and
syncopation of unstressed syllables.
Note the following differences in phonemic stress between
British and American English:

Britain US
address address
cafe cafe
debris debris
garage garage
research research
valet valet
Mayan languages have stress systems,
and stress is completely predictable in
native vocabulary. There are four
basic types of stress systems (clitics
are unstressed)

A. stress the heaviest syllable

(Wasteko, Northern Mam)

B. stress the first syllable of the root

(Q'anjob'al)

C. stress the penult syllable

(Southern Mam, Ixil)

D. stress the final syllable

(K'ichee', Western Mam)

Terrence Kaufman (2014:63-64)

In Huastec stress falls on the
penultimate syllable when the last
syllable is short. It falls on the last
syllable if the penultimate syllable is
short and the last is long, or if both
are long. Chicomuceltec stress differs
from that of Huastec in that it falls
consistently on the last syllable ...

Ch. W.
iník ínik person
čavál čábal ground
k'itá k'i:tsá: day

Elisabeth Norcliffe (2003:17)

heavy syllable stress, default final
canonical final stress
In Yucatec words of more than one
syllable, the syllable containing a long
vowel is stressed. If the word has two
long vowels, the vowel in the first
syllable receives primary stress. If the
word has no long vowels, the last
syllable is stressed.

Victoria R. Bricker (1998:xiii)
In his unpublished Yucatec grammar,
Manuel J. Andrade noted that “in
words with one double vowel, the
accent is always on the first element
—e.g., hool head, huun paper, luum
ground, taan ashes, buul bean”.

Today we recognize these words as
disyllabic forms with an intervocalic
glottal stop (e.g., b'ú’ul, bean). This
indicates that a syllable terminating in
a glottal stop also constitutes a heavy
syllable in Yucatec.
heavy syllable stress, default final
canonical final stress
 ARTE
en lengua choltí que qui-
ere decir lengua de mil-
eros
p

Fray Francisco Morán

Arte, 1695, folio 5r
In an unpublished Ch'orti' morphological
sketch, Søren Wichmann observes that
“Ch'orti' stress falls on the last syllable,
which is the cause of reduction of the last
vowel of disyllabic roots,” giving the
following examples:

aj-k'opot-ar > ajk'optar wild
ak'ab'-ar > akb'ar night
ka-winik-ir > kawinkir our lord
u-k'ewer-ar > uk'ewrar his skin
way-an-ij > waynij sleeping
Similarly, Jim Dugan (2013:26) notes that
Ch'orti' stress “falls almost universally on
the ultimate syllable”, though he goes on to
observe that “a few words have stress on
some other syllable, mostly loan-words. For
example, niwilama ‘my wife’ is stressed on
the penultimate syllable. The word ilama is
clearly a loan from the Nahuatl ilamatl ‘old
woman’ ... Similarly, kilis, the Ch’orti’ word
for ‘eclipse’, has stress on the penultimate
syllable and is almost certainly an
adaptation of the Spanish word eclipse.
Charles and Ruth Wisdom
(May 1932)

(Metz 2016:273)
 vii.

1940
viii.

c = x [š]
q = k
tc = ch [č]
x = h
Charles Wisdom, Materials on the Chorti Language, 1950
(courtesy University of Chicago Library)
MCMMA 28, p. 23
(courtesy University of Chicago Library)
Stress

The general rule is that stress falls on the last vowel of the word. ... This rule
applies in all cases in which the last vowel is immediately preceded by a
consonant (other than -h- or -x-), -w-, -y-, or another single vowel with which
it does not coalesce:

anám mud tc'uyi ...

ats'ám salt pa'aq'í planting
mukúk large sack utuiír its stink
makár an enclosing p'áac sorcery
p'ahrám jaguar nuhpiáar marriage
But if a final vowel (or diphthong) is preceded by h or x it can
never carry the stress. ... This is especially seen in the passive
forms (containing internal h) of the verbs of Cl. I & II.

púhui
móhoi
tcíhir
póhop
b'áhan, solitude
áhan, a running.
áhan, a sounding out.
 Verbal constructions with the final
interrogative –ka take the accent on the
syllable preceding the interrogative

icín–ka, are you going?

In Chontal, all things being equal, the last
syllable in the word stem is stressed. ...

In u-hätz'-é='et-la, ‘he hits you-all’, note

that the pronominal affix ='et-la does not
carry stress. ...

In the imperative of derived transitive

verbs, stress shifts to the verbal root

a-sut-ún you turn it over

sút=un turn it over!

Susan Knowles (1984:61-62)

heavy syllable stress, default final
canonical final stress
final stress, unless penult ends in ’, h, or j
heavy syllable stress, default final
canonical final stress
final stress, unless penult ends in ’, h, or j canonical initial stress
heavy syllable stress, default final
canonical final stress canonical penult stress
final stress, unless penult ends in ’, h, or j canonical initial stress
The fact that three of these four
patterns are found among the dialects
of a single language, Mam, shows that
at least two of the patterns are either
not very old, or else were borrowed
by Mam from members of other
Mayan branches. In my view Proto-
Mayan probably had a variant of the
type A stress system very like that of
Wasteko.

Terrence Kaufman (2014:64)
heavy syllable stress, default final final stress, unless short, then penult
canonical final stress canonical penult stress
final stress, unless penult ends in ’, h, or j canonical initial stress
Classic Mayan accent?
 ?

heavy syllable stress, default final final stress, unless short, then penult
canonical final stress canonical penult stress
final stress, unless penult ends in ’, h, or j canonical initial stress
Dos Pilas, Hieroglyphic Stairway 2, East, Step 2
(photo by Marc Zender)

(December 23, 650) Dos Pilas defeated by Yuhknoom Ch'een II of Calakmul. Bajlaj Chan K'awiil
of Dos Pilas escaped to Aguateca.

K'UH-MUT-AJAW
k'uh[ul] mut[al] ajaw
god-ADJ ?-REL lord
Holy Mutal lord
La Corona Element 56
(drawing by Mary Kate Kelly)

6-IK' KAJ-yi
5-YAX-SIJOOM-ma AHK-TUUN-ni

HUL-sa-ni u-19-la-ta
AJ-SAK-NIK-TE' 12-‘Imix’

4-SAK-SIJOOM-ma
ti-JOY-ja-AJAW

wak ik' ho' yaxsijoom kajaay ahktuun hulsaan ajsaknikte'

ubalunlajun laht lajchan imix chan saksijoom joyaj tiajawil ...

(On the day) 6 Ik 5 Yax, he settled Ahktuun bringing the La Coronians.

19 days later, (on the day) 12 Imix 4 Zac, he entered kingship ...
 wi
a na

ke na

awinakeen
a- winak =een
2SA- man =1SB
“I’m your man”
(PNG Panel 3, photo courtest Jorge Pérez de Lara)
 pu-lu a-JOL
pul=u a-jol
hit=IMP 2SA-head
Hit your head!

u-tz'u a-wi-ti
utz'=u aw-it
smell=IMP 2SA-ass
Smell your ass!
(photo courtesy Justin Kerr, K1398)
I propose that Classic Maya accent was governed by two rules:

1. stress the final vowel of disyllabic roots and stems

e.g., atan, chanal, chapat, chitam, chuwen, k'aba’, lakam

2. unless that final vowel is immediately preceded by j, h,

or Ɂ, in which case stress the penult
e.g., ajaw, b'u'ul, ch'ahoom, k'uhul, -najal, sijoom, tajal, we’ib

Note that Classic Mayan clitics did not receive stress

e.g., absolutives (-een, -at, -o'n), imperative (-V1), interrogative (-ka)

Classic Mayan may have retained the weight-based system of

proto-Mayan, though this can't presently be demonstrated

e.g., ahk'bal, bahlam, bajlaj, haabil, huunal, k'ahk'al, tuunil