Tzeltal language
| Tzeltal | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Mexico | |
| speaker | over 470,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | National language in Mexico
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 | ( B ) myn (all Maya) | ( T ) - |
| ISO 639-3 |
tzh |
|
Tzeltal ( Bats'il K'op , "original word") is a Maya language spoken by around 480,000 indigenous people , mainly in the Mexican state of Chiapas . It is most closely related to the Tzotzil language .
Sociolinguistic situation today
Tzeltal is one of the most vital indigenous languages in Mexico . The number of Tzeltal speakers is growing faster than the total population of Mexico. In the 2010 Mexican census, 474,298 people aged 3 and over said they spoke Tzeltal. Of these, 284,622 or 60.01% said they also speak Spanish. With 40% monolinguals, Tzeltal has one of the highest proportions of the indigenous languages in Mexico. 101,255 children between 3 and 9 years of age spoke Tzeltal, which makes up 21.35% of all Tzeltal speakers from 3 years of age, while 14.71% of the total population of Mexico from 3 years of age is 3–9 years old.
In the Mexican diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas , the first edition of the Bible was printed in Tzeltal in 2004 in 10,000 editions. Jesuits from the University of Mexico City were involved in the translation , but above all the indigenous communities.
Individual evidence
- ^ INEGI 2010: Censo de Población y Vievienda 2010 , accessed on March 25, 2011
- ↑ Eugenio Maurer et al. (Ed.): “Ts'ihbaybil sCh'ulc'op jTatic Dios ta tzeltal.” 1st edition. Obra Nacional de la Buena Prensa, Ciudad de México 2004, ISBN 970-693-227-5