| Pech | |
| Also Known As: | Paya |
| Region: | North central coast (Olancho Department) |
| Ethnicity: | Pech (2013) |
| Speakers: | 300 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Chibchan |
| Iso3: | pay |
| Glotto: | pech1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Pech |
| Map2: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
Pech or Pesh is a Chibchan language spoken in Honduras. It was formerly known as Paya, and continues to be referred to in this manner by several sources, though there are negative connotations associated with this term.[1] It has also been referred to as Seco. There are 300 speakers according to Yasugi (2007). It is spoken near the north-central coast of Honduras, in the Dulce Nombre de Culmí municipality of Olancho Department.
Pech is thought to have South American origin, as it shares similar roots with the Kuna language of Panama.[2] Pech is the only remaining Chibchan language in Honduras[3] and is currently classified as a severely endangered language.
On the basis of shared grammatical innovations, Pache (2023) argues that Pech is most closely related to the Arhuacic languages of northern Colombia, forming a Pech-Arhuacic subgroup.[4]
According to Dennis Holt (1999), Pech is spoken by perhaps around 600 people in Olancho Department and Colón Department of Honduras. Pech used to be spoken in the town of Dulce Nombre de Culmí in the Río Guampú watershed, but Pech speakers moved out of the town due to the influx of Ladino migrants. The three primary Pech settlements are as follows.
Vallecito and Marañones are both located in the foothills of the Sierra de Agalta.
Other smaller Pech settlements which have at most several ethnic Pech families are scattered around northern Olancho Department, including the following (Holt 1999).
At the time of initial Spanish contact, Pech was most likely spoken from Trujillo in the west to Cabo Gracias a Dios in the east, and as far south as the upper Patuca River (Holt 1999). Tol (Jicaque) would have been spoken just to the west.
Pech is a tonal language with 16 consonants and 10 vowels (Holt 1999). There are two tones, namely a high tone and a low tone. Both consonants and vowels display length contrast and nasalization.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Liquid | flap | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| lateral | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Notes:
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal | oral | nasal | oral | nasal | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Notes
| a | â | ã | b | ch | e | ê |
| /a/, /ə/ | /aː/ | /ã/ | /b/, /β/ | /t͡ʃ/ | /e/, /ɛ/ | /eː/ |
| ẽ | h | i | î | ĩ | k | kw |
| /ẽ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /iː/ | /ĩ/ | /k/, /g/ | /kʷ/, /gʷ/ |
| l | m | n | ñ | o | ô | õ |
| /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /o/, /ɔ/ | /oː/ | /õ/ |
| p | r | rr | s | sh | t | u |
| /p/ | /ɾ/ | /r/ | /s/ | /ʃ/, /c̆/ | /t/ | /u/ |
| û | ũ | v | w | y | ||
| /uː/ | /ũ/ | /b/, /β/ | /w/, /ŋw̃/ | /j/, /dj~ɲ/ |
In Pech, the high tone is shown with an accent over the vowel, and unmarked vowels are of the low tone.[5]
Pech has primary and secondary levels of stress, which are not distinctive. They rely on the underlying marked tone and stem syllables. Primary stress tends to occur in the last syllable of the stem. Primary and secondary stress are also related to inflectional suffixes.
Syllable clusters
Internal sandhi: this includes vocalic contraction and assimilation, vocalic and consonantal syncope, nasal assimilation, metathesis, and epenthesis
Morphological processes present in this language include affixation, reduplication, vocalic ablaut, and heightening of phonemic tone.
The four word classes that Pech has are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and particles.
Prefixes and suffixes inflect nouns for possession.
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ta- | pata- | ùnta- | |
| 2nd person | pí- | pí- ... -wá | ||
| 3rd person | a- | pèš-/pè:- |
Inalienably Possessed Nouns:These generally occur with possessive pronominal prefixes. These prefixes are only dropped when these noun-stems are part of compound nouns.
Note: 'between' does not follow this pattern, as seen in asàʔ a-kèrahã̀ 'between the stones'
| Nominative -yã̀ʔ | Comitative/Instrumental -yó | |
| Objective -ra | Mediative/Instrumental -rí | |
| Genitive -ʔe | Manner/Relational -kán | |
| Locative/Allative -yã̀ | Absolutive -ká/-(h)á |
Case Suffixes with complex noun-phrases:
Emphatic SuffixesThese occur with subjects, direct objects, and some oblique objects that are already marked with case-suffixes. These suffixes are -ma (with subject, direct object noun, or noun-phrase) and -hã̀ʔ (with objective and locative nouns)
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | tàs | patàs | untàs | |
| 2nd Person | pà: | pà:- -wa | ||
| 3rd Person | éka | éka |
Verb inflection is made with prefixes and suffixes, though vocalic ablaut is present in certain verb-stems and future-tense suffixes. Positions for the finite verb include:
Pech is an SOV (subject–object–verb) language (Holt 1999). There are exceptions to this, as oblique noun-phrases, adverbials, direct object noun-phrases, and subject noun-phrases all are capable of occurring after verbs. Overall, Pech is a synthetic language which uses mostly suffixes, but also prefixes, vocalic ablaut, and reduplication as well.
In Pech, both simple and complex sentences exist. The first consists of a single independent clause while the latter consists of independent and dependent clauses. Independent nouns or pronoun subjects are not necessary within a sentence, and sentence may contain no more than a single verb form, within which the pronominal subject is marked.
The focus of a sentence is marked by the emphatic suffix -ma, which may follow nouns, pronouns, verbal nominals, time adverbials, and other word types. Object nouns and noun-phrases can be emphasized with the suffix -hã́?, which follows the objective or locative case-suffix. The suffixes -ma and -hã́? cannot both be within the same simple sentence.
Other parts of a sentence are marked as follows:
Conjunction:
| Conjunction Type | Formed by: | |
|---|---|---|
| Noun + noun | Adding suffix rih- to each noun in the conjoined set | |
| Verb + verb | Serial verb-stems that include the stem, subject suffix, and object-prefixes for each verb involvedInclude the verb nã̀ ('go') and the verb tèʔ(k) in first and final position, with other verb-stems in between. | |
| Verb-phrase & sentence conjunction | Linear sequencing; it does not require the use of a morpheme or conjunctive word |
Subordination:
| Suffixes Involved | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
| The suffix -íná? is usually paired with the suffix -péšá? | Expresses 'although' or 'even though' | |
| Previative suffixes such as -tutàwá? and tu?[w]èr | Assign temporal priority to the main clause and relative anteriority to the subordinate clause | |
| The suffix -táni? | Expresses indefinite future time, i.e. 'when, as soon as, etc.' | |
| Simultaneitive suffix wã́ | Forms non-finite participial clauses meaning something like 'while, during, when, etc.' | |
| Subordinating suffixes: -wà (present tense, and which changes depending on the subject and plurality) and -hã́? (future tense) | Added to conjugated verbs to form finite subordinate clauses | |
| The suffix -mā? (subjunctive meaning) | Used to form if-clauses | |
| The suffix -(à)srí | Serves the same purpose as -mā?, though it expresses more uncertainty | |
| The suffix -rikeh | Expresses 'although, even though, etc.'; the difference between this and -íná? is not specified | |
| The suffix -rás | Expresses the concept of 'because, since, etc. |
Interrogation:
| Suffixes Involved | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
| The interrogative suffix -éreh | Added to the verbal construction of a sentence in either the past or present tense to turn it into a yes–no question | |
| The interrogative suffix -iká | Same purpose as -éreh, but for sentences in the future tense | |
| The suffix pīš | Used to express 'how many?' or 'how much?' | |
| The suffix -sah | Expresses question words (what, where, who, why) |