Itzaʼ language

Itzaʼ belongs to the Yucatecan branch of Mayan Languages. The other languages in the Yucatecan branch are Yucatec, Lacandon, and Mopan. All Yucatecan languages are closely linked with each other. However, people speaking Itzaʼ and those speaking Yucatec have difficulties understanding each other. There are 12 different branches of Mayan language, all with sub families like Itzaʼ. ==History==

The government of Guatemala banned the speaking of Itzá in the 1930s and two generations of Itzá Maya have grown up learning only Spanish. The late 1980s brought an increase in interest among Maya people, including the Itzá, in preserving their cultural heritage. The Guatemalan government has set up an institution, the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, to help develop and preserve various Mayan languages, including Itzaʼ. ==Geographic distribution==

Itzaʼ is spoken on the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá in San José, Petén Department, Guatemala. Among the ethnic population of 2,000, there are only about 1,000 Itzaʼ speakers remaining, most of which also use Spanish. == Phonology ==

Consonants The following chart shows the consonant phonemes of Itza: Where the orthography differs from the IPA notation, the orthography used by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala is noted in brackets. The phonemes /d, g, f, v, r, ɲ/ have been adopted from Spanish and are present only in loanwords. == Grammar ==

Nouns Possession is marked with the same ergative particle as is used in verbal constructions. Possession constructions are marked differently based on whether the possession is inherent or non-inherent. Body parts, family members, and personal property are marked as being possessed differently than are parts of a whole. Additional possession constructions exist and are used generally where the possessor is inanimate. Gender is not marked on all nouns: typically, proper nouns and professions have marked gender, while other categories do not. The gender markers of Itzaʼ also play the role of rigid designators: specific individuals across all possible worlds will have overtly marked gender, while references to classes of objects will not. Sentence structure Itzaʼ has VOS word order, although VSO is also common and all word orders are possible. Topicalization is marked by the addition of a suffix and the movement of the topicalized word to the sentence initial position. Generally, modifiers precede the words they modify: adjectives, numerals, determiners, and negation all follow this pattern. Possessives, demonstratives, and relative clauses all typically follow the words they modify; adjectives can also occur in this position. ==Vocabulary==

Itzaʼ possesses a rich vocabulary of agriculture and taxonomy. Itza has specific words to encode various properties of different varietals and individuals within a species. Plants and animals of different size, color, and taste are referred to with different terms. Additionally, agricultural terms in Itzaʼ have been virtually uninfluenced by contact with the Spanish, allowing some insight into the commonplace vocabulary of pre-contact Itza. Sample ==Discourse==

Discourse in Itzaʼ is marked by its heavy use of repetition and linguistic parallelism. Words and linguistic constructions are often repeated throughout a sentence order to draw emphasis to what is being spoken. The categories tense, aspect, and mood are interwoven in Itzaj Maya verbal and adverbial morphosyntax. Itzaj narrative discourse suggests a division between what a person knows from personal experience centered in one's home and town (the actual), and what is less known, but imaginable, further away in space-time. == See also ==