| Mam | |
| Nativename: | Qyool Mam, Ta yol Mam |
| States: | Guatemala, Mexico |
| Region: | Chiapas and Campeche, Mexico Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Retalhuleu, Guatemala; |
| Ethnicity: | Mam |
| Speakers: | in Guatemala |
| Date: | 2019 census |
| Ref: | e24 |
| Speakers2: | in Mexico (2020 census)[1] |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Mayan |
| Fam2: | Eastern Mayan |
| Fam3: | Greater Mamean |
| Fam4: | Mamean |
| Minority: |  Mexico Guatemala |
| Iso3: | mam |
| Glotto: | mamm1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Mam |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Script: | Latin |
| Agency: | Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas Comunidad Lingüística Mam (COLIMAM) |
| Dia1: | Northern Mam |
| Dia2: | Central Mam |
| Dia3: | Soconusco Mam |
| Dia4: | Western Mam |
| Dia5: | Southern Mam |
Mam is a Mayan language spoken by about half a million Mam people in the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Retalhuleu, and the Mexican states of Campeche and Chiapas. Thousands more make up a Mam diaspora throughout the United States and Mexico, with notable populations living in Oakland, California[2] [3] and Washington, D.C. The most extensive Mam grammar is Nora C. England's A grammar of Mam, a Mayan language (1983), which is based on the San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán dialect of Huehuetenango Department.
Mam is closely related to the Tektitek language, and the two languages together form the Mamean sub-branch of the Mayan language family. Along with the Ixilan languages, Awakatek and Ixil, these make up the Greater Mamean sub-branch, one of the two branches of the Eastern Mayan languages (the other being the Greater Quichean sub-branch, which consists of 10 Mayan languages, including Kʼicheʼ).
Because contact between members of different Mam communities is somewhat limited, the language varies considerably even from village to village. Nevertheless, mutual intelligibility, though difficult, is possible through practice.
Mam varieties within Mexico and Guatemala are divided into five dialect groups:[4]
In addition to these, the dialects of Chiapas, Mexico are characterized by significant grammatical as well as lexical differences from the Guatemalan varieties.[9]
Mam is spoken in 64 communities in four Guatemalan departments[10] and numerous communities in Campeche and Chiapas, Mexico. Neighboring languages include Jakaltek and Qʼanjobʼal to the north, Tektitek and Qato'k to the west, and Ixil, Awakatek, Sipacapense, and Kʼicheʼ to the east.
Chiapas
Mam has weight sensitive stress assignment. Primary stress falls on the long vowel in a word if there is one, e.g. aq'ú:ntl 'work'. Words without a long vowel assign primary stress to the vowel preceding the last glottal stop, e.g. puʔláʔ 'dipper'. Words without a long vowel or a glottal stop assign stress to the vowel preceding the last consonant in the root, e.g. xpicháqʼ 'raccoon'. Stress is not assigned to suffixes or enclitics that do not have long vowels or a glottal stop.
Mam has 10 vowels, 5 short and 5 long:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Long | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Short | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Mid | Long | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Short | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open | Long | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Short | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
Mam has 27 consonants, including the glottal stop:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Palatalized | ||||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||||||
| Plosive | Plain | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Ejective | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Implosive | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
| Affricate | Plain | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Ejective | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Flap | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
Most roots take the morphological shape CVC. The only possible root final consonant cluster is -nC. Syllables can have up to four consonants in a cluster in any position. Most consonant clusters are the result of vowel dropping and morpheme addition.
Mam has two sets of agreement markers, known to Mayanists as Set A and Set B markers, which can appear on both nouns and verbs. Mam uses Set A (ergative) markers on nouns to mark possessor agreement and on verbs to cross-reference the transitive subject. Mam uses Set B (absolutive) markers on transitive verbs to cross-reference the object and on intransitive verbs to cross-reference the subject. Below is a table of Set A (ergative) and Set B (absolutive) prefixes from England.
| Set A | c=03 | Set B | c=04 | Enclitics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c=01 | 1s | c=02 | n- ~ w- | c=03 | chin- | c=04 | -a ~ -ya | |
| c=01 | 2s | c=02 | t- | c=03 | Ø ~ tz- ~ tzʼ- ~ k- | c=04 | -a ~ -ya | |
| c=01 | 3s | c=02 | t- | c=03 | Ø ~ tz- ~ tzʼ- ~ k- | c=04 | – | |
| c=01 | 1p (excl.) | c=02 | q- | c=03 | qo- | c=04 | -a ~ -ya | |
| c=01 | 1p (incl.) | c=02 | q- | c=03 | qo- | c=04 | – | |
| c=01 | 2p | c=02 | ky- | c=03 | chi- | c=04 | -a ~ -ya | |
| c=01 | 3p | c=02 | ky- | c=03 | chi- | c=04 | – |
Phonologically conditioned allomorphs are as follows.
Some paradigmatic examples from England (1983) are given below. Note that "Ø-" designates a null prefix. Additionally, ma is an aspectual word meaning 'recent past'.
| Set A markers + NOUN | ||
|---|---|---|
| jaa | 'house' | |
| n-jaa-ya | 'my house' | |
| t-jaa-ya | 'your house' | |
| t-jaa | 'his/her house' | |
| q-jaa-ya | 'our (not your) house' | |
| q-jaa | 'our (everyone's) house' | |
| ky-jaa-ya | 'you (pl)'s house' | |
| ky-jaa | 'their house' | |
| Set B markers + VERB | ||
|---|---|---|
| bʼeet- | to walk | |
| ma chin bʼeet-a | 'I walked.' | |
| ma Ø-bʼeet-a | 'You walked.' | |
| ma Ø-bʼeet | 'He/she walked.' | |
| ma qo bʼeet-a | 'We (not you) walked.' | |
| ma qo bʼeet | 'We all walked' | |
| ma chi bʼeet-a | 'You all walked.' | |
| ma chi bʼeet | 'They walked.' | |
Verbs in Mam can include inflection for person, aspect and mode, as well as auxiliaries in the form of directionals. The verb complex has distinct forms for transitive and intransitive verb stems depending in part on whether the complex cross-references one or two arguments. The lexical status of the verb complex is ambiguous. The inflections with vowels are phonologically independent (indicated by spaces). Transitive verb complexes with directionals have a dependent suffix. Two of England's examples of intransitive and transitive verb complexes are shown below.
Intransitive verb complex with directional
Transitive verb complex with directional
Mam extends the Set A (ergative) person markers in the context of focused adverbials and certain subordinate clauses. In these contexts, the Set A markers cross-reference the subject of intransitive verbs and both the subject and object of transitive verbs. The following examples show the extended ergative marker /t-/ in bold.
Intransitive verb complex with extended ergative marking
Transitive verb complex with extended ergative marking
REC:recent pastPOT:potential aspectABS:absolutive agreement (Set B)ERG:ergative agreement (Set A)DEP:dependent suffixDIR:directionalENC:person encliticREL:relational nounPAT:patient
Transitive verbal affixes
Intransitive verbal affixes
Other verbal affixes
Aspects
Mam verbs have 6 aspects that are prefixed to the verb root.
Modes
Directionals
Directionals are auxiliary elements in verb phrases. They are derived from intransitive verbs.
Mam has no independent pronouns. Rather, pronouns in Mam always exist as bound morphemes.
The Mam language displays inalienable possession. Certain Mam nouns cannot be possessed, such as kya'j 'sky' and che'w 'star'. On the other hand, some Mam nouns are always possessed, such as t-lokʼ 'its root' and t-bʼaqʼ 'its seed'.
Noun phrase structure can be summarized into the following template.
| Demonstrative | Number | Measure | Plural | Possessive affixes | NOUN ROOT | Possessor | Adjective | Relative clause |
The plural clitic is qa.
Noun affixes
Relational noun affixes
Locative affixes
Classifiers
Measure words
Measure words quantify mass nouns.
San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán Mam numbers are as follows. Numbers above twenty are rarely used in Ixtahuacán and are usually only known by elderly speakers. Although the number system would have originally been vigesimal (i.e., base 20), the present-day number system of Ixtahuacán is now decimal.
| Numeral | Word | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | juun | |
| 2 | kabʼ | |
| 3 | oox | |
| 4 | kyaaj | |
| 5 | jweʼ | |
| 6 | qaq | |
| 7 | wuuq | |
| 8 | wajxaq | |
| 9 | bʼelaj | |
| 10 | laaj | |
| 20 | wiinqan | |
| 40 | kyaʼwnaq | |
| 60 | oxkʼaal | |
| 80 | junmutxʼ |
Mam has both verbal and non-verbal types of sentences. Verbal sentences have verbal predicates, whereas non-verbal sentences have a stative or a locative/existential predicate. Verbal predicates have an aspect marker, while non-verbal predicates do not have aspect marking. Both verbal and non-verbal predicates occur in sentence-initial position unless a focused or topicalized phrase is present.
Verbal predicates are either transitive or intransitive according to the number of arguments cross-referenced in the verb complex. The number of arguments cross-referenced by the verb complex is not consistent with the transitivity of the verb root or the number of participants in an event. England notes examples of transitive verb roots that only appear in their antipassive or passive forms where they only cross-reference a single participant.
Another possibility is the use of intransitive motion verbs to express transitive events.
The basic word order in verbal sentences with two nominal arguments is VSO. Other word orders are not acceptable.
If only one argument appears in a transitive sentence and the argument is compatible with either person marker on the verb, it has a patient interpretation.
Mam speakers use a higher proportion of intransitive sentences than speakers of other Mayan languages. England and Martin (2003) found a low frequency of transitive sentences in Mam texts. Pye (2017) found a low use of overt subjects in transitive sentences in adults speaking to children. One adult produced overt subjects in 6% of transitive sentences. The same adult produced overt subjects in 41% of intransitive sentences and produced overt objects in 49% of transitive sentences.
Mam adds Set B person markers to nouns and adjectives to form non-verbal predicates. The following Set B person markers are used for non-verbal predicates (i.e., nouns, adjectives). Also, in statives, aa can be omitted when the rest of the stative is a non-enclitic (in other words, a separate, independent word).
| Stative[12] | c=03 | Locative / Existental[13] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c=01 | 1s | c=02 | (aa) qiin-a | c=03 | (a)t-iin-a | |
| c=01 | 2s | c=02 | aa-ya | c=03 | (a)t-(aʼ-y)a | |
| c=01 | 3s | c=02 | aa | c=03 | (a)t-(aʼ) | |
| c=01 | 1p (excl.) | c=02 | (aa) qoʼ-ya | c=03 | (a)t-oʼ-ya | |
| c=01 | 1p (incl.) | c=02 | (aa) qoʼ | c=03 | (a)t-oʼ | |
| c=01 | 2p | c=02 | aa-qa-ya | c=03 | (a)t-eʼ-ya | |
| c=01 | 3p | c=02 | aa-qa | c=03 | (a)t-eʼ |
Paradigmatic examples of non-verbal predicates from England (1983) are given below.
| NOUN + Set B markers | ||
|---|---|---|
| xjaal | person | |
| xjaal qiin-a | 'I am a person.' | |
| xjaal-a | 'You are a person.' | |
| xjaal | 'He/she is a person.' | |
| xjaal qoʼ-ya | 'We (excl.) are persons.' | |
| xjaal qo- | 'We (incl.) are persons.' | |
| xjaal qa-ya | 'You all are persons.' | |
| xjaal qa | 'They are persons.' | |
| ADJECTIVE + Set B markers | ||
|---|---|---|
| sikynaj | tired | |
| sikynaj qiin-a | 'I am tired.' | |
| sikynaj-a | 'You are tired.' | |
| sikynaj | 'He/she is tired.' | |
| sikynaj qoʼ-ya | 'We (excl.) are tired.' | |
| sikynaj qoʼ | 'We (incl.) are tired.' | |
| sikynaj qa-ya | 'You all are tired.' | |
| sikynaj qa | 'They are tired.' | |
REC:recent pastAP:antipassive suffixPAS:passive suffixPOT:potential aspectABS:absolutive agreement (Set B)ERG:ergative agreement (Set A)DEP:dependent suffixDIR:directionalENC:person encliticINTENS:intensiveREL:relational nounPAT:patientTV:transitive verbIMP:imperativeCL:noun classifier
An overview of child language acquisition in Mam can be found in Pye (2017). Child language data for Mam challenge many theories of language acquisition and demonstrate the need for more extensive documentation of native American languages.[14]
Children acquiring Mam produce a higher proportion of verbs than children acquiring K’iche’, but a lower proportion of verbs compared to children acquiring Wastek and Chol. They produce a higher proportion of intransitive verbs relative to transitive verbs than children acquiring other Mayan languages (Pye, Pfeiler and Mateo Pedro 2017:22). Their high proportion of relational noun production is tied to their frequent use of intransitive verbs.
The following examples illustrate the children's use of intransitive verbs to express events with two participants. Ages are shown as (years;months.days). WEN (2;0.2) used the intransitive verb -kub’ ("go_down") in reference to an event of picking coffee. She used the relational noun phrase t-uʔn-a to express the agent in an oblique phrase. CRU (2;5.12) used the intransitive verb -el ("go_out") in reference to an event of taking out an object. She used the relational noun phrase w-uʔn-a to express the agent. JOS (2;6.17) used the intransitive verb -b’aj ("finish") in reference to finishing a drink. He used the possessive prefix on the noun k’aʔ ("drink")to express the agent. The examples overturn the hypothesis that children tie their use of transitive verbs to object manipulation events.
Two-year-old Mam children produce the consonants pronounced as //m, n, p, t, ch, k, ʔ, l, y and w//. They produce pronounced as /link/ in place of glottalized stops, pronounced as /link/ in place of pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ in place of /ky/ and pronounced as /link/, /ch/ in place of /tz/ and /tx/, /xh/ in place of /x/, and pronounced as /link/ in place of pronounced as /link/. Mam children begin producing ejective consonants after they are three and a half years old.[15] The early production of /ch/ and /l/ in Mam, as well as the late production of /s/, overturns predictions that all children have similar phonologies due to articulatory development.
The following examples illustrate WEN’s verb complex production. In (1), WEN produced the vowel /a/ from the verb root -q'a ("give"), the imperative suffix -n, and the directional suffix -tz as /xh/. (Many directionals have contracted forms as suffixes.). WEN omitted the person enclitic -a. In (2), WEN produced the progressive prefix n-, the vowel /e/ from the verb root -el ("go out"), a spurious /n/, and the directional suffix -tz as /ch/. The intransitive verb -el belongs to the class of motion verbs that take directional suffixes. Intransitive verbs outside of the class of motion verbs do not take directional suffixes except in imperative contexts. The verb -el contracts with the directional suffix -tz to produce the stem -etz ("go out to") in adult speech. WEN’s omission of the person enclitic and production of a spurious consonant overturn the hypothesis that children produce forms that are frequent in adult speech.
The children’s production of the directional suffixes demonstrates their early recognition of the distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs in Mam. This distinction is a core feature of Mam grammar, and underpins the ergative morphology on the verbs and nouns. The semantic diversity of the verbs and positionals overturns the hypothesis that children use prototypical activity scenes as a basis for constructing grammatical categories. The children’s grammatical acumen is best seen in their use of the ergative and absolutive agreement markers on verbs. The children produced the prevocalic allomorphs of the ergative markers in nearly all of their obligatory contexts. They produced the preconsonantal allomorphs of the ergative markers in 20% of their obligatory contexts.
Two-year-old Mam children display a remarkable awareness of the contexts for extending the use of ergative markers to cross-reference the subject of intransitive verbs. Outside of these contexts, they consistently produced absolutive person markers on intransitive verbs. Three Mam children produced ergative person markers on intransitive verbs in half of the obligatory contexts for extended ergativity. The children’s awareness of the contexts for extended ergative use is all the more remarkable because the contexts are tied to clauses in dependent contexts in which aspect is not overtly marked. The following example shows JOS’s use of extended ergative marking (in bold) on the intransitive verb -ok ("go_in") in a purpose clause headed by the adverb ii ("so that"). The children’s production of ergative markers on intransitive verbs in dependent contexts overturns the theory that children link ergative markers to the subjects of transitive verbs in all contexts.
Mam two-year-olds produce sentences with a predicate-initial word order. The children, like adults, rarely produce the subject argument in transitive sentences. The Mam children show an ergative pattern of argument production that similar to the adult pattern.
REC:recent pastAP:antipassive suffixPAS:passive suffixPOT:potential aspectABS:absolutive agreement (Set B)ERG:ergative agreement (Set A)DEP:dependent suffixDIR:directionalENC:person encliticINTENS:intensiveREL:relational nounPAT:patientTV:transitive verbIMP:imperativeCL:noun classifier