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Tzotzil

Bats'i k'op

Tzotzil is a Mayan language spoken in Mexico, by about 350 thousand people.

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Tzotzil · 16.6°N 92.7°W

Tzotzil (; Batsʼi kʼop [ɓatsʼi kʼopʰ]) is a Maya language spoken by the Indigenous Tzotzil Maya people in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Some speakers may be somewhat bilingual in Spanish, but many are monolingual Tzotzil speakers. In Central Chiapas, some primary schools and a secondary school are taught in Tzotzil. Tzeltal is the most closely related language to Tzotzil and together they form a Tzeltalan sub-branch of the Mayan language family. Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chʼol are the most widely spoken languages in Chiapas besides Spanish.

There are six dialects of Tzotzil with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility, named after the different regions of Chiapas where they are spoken: Chamula, Zinacantán, San Andrés Larráinzar, Huixtán, Chenalhó, and Venustiano Carranza.

From Wikipedia · Tzotzil language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Written down

Skotol vinik o ants ta spejel balumile k’olem x-hayan i ko’ol ta sch’ulal i sderechoetik i, skotol k’ux-elan oyike oy srasonik y slekilalik, sventa skuxijik leknóo ta ju jun ju ju vo.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR in Unicode).

Words in Tzotzil

MeaningWordRomanization
manvinik
womanants
namebiil
eyesatil
earchikinil
handk'obol
headjolol
bloodchʼichʼelil
watervo'
firekʼokʼ
starkʼanal
skyvinajel
mountainvits
treete'
birdmut
horsek'a
coffeekajve
saltatsʼam
breadkaxlan vaj
housena
redtsoj

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

Elsewhere

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Glottolog · tzot1259 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · tzo