Tojolab'al language

Infobox Language
name=Tojolabal
nativename=Tojolabal
states=Mexico
region=Southeast Chiapas
speakers=approx. 20,000
familycolor=American
fam1=Mayan
fam2=Kanjobalan-Chujean
fam3=Chujean
iso2=myn
iso3=toj

Tojolabal is a Mayan language spoken in Chiapas, Mexico. It is related to the Chuj language spoken in Guatemala. Tojolabal is spoken especially in the departments of the Chiapanecan Colonia of Las Margaritas by about 20,000 people.

The name Tojolabal derives from the phrase /tohol/ /ab'al/, meaning "right language". 19^th century documents sometimes refer to the language and its speakers as "Chaneabal" (meaning "four languages", possibly a reference to the four Mayan languages -- Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, and Chuj -- spoken in the Chiapas highlands and nearby lowlands along the Guatemala border).

Anthropologist Carlos Lenkersdorf has claimed several linguistic and cultural features of the Tojolabal, primarily the language's ergativity shows that they do not give cognitive weight to the distinctions subject/object, active/passive. This he interprets as being evidence in favor of the controversial Sapir-Worf hypothesis.

Tojolab'al-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEVFS, broadcasting from Las Margaritas.

References

*cite book |author=Lenkersdorf, Carlos |year=1996 |title=Los hombres verdaderos. Voces y testimonios tojolabales. Lengua y sociedad, naturaleza cite y cultura, artes y comunidad cósmica |publisher=Siglo XXI |location=Mexico City |id=ISBN 968-23-1998-6