Mam language

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Mam language

The Mam language is a member of the Mamean branch of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by the Mam people

Mam people

The Mam are a Indigenous Peoples of the Americas people in the Guatemalan_Highlands of Guatemala and in south-western Mexico.Most Mam live in Guatemala, in the departments of Huehuetenango , San Marcos , and Quetzaltenango ....
of the highlands of western Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....
.

There are at least three major divisions in the language: Northern Mam spoken in the department

Departments of Guatemala

|||}Guatemala is divided into 22 Department :#Alta Verapaz Department#Baja Verapaz Department#Chimaltenango Department#Chiquimula Department...
of Huehuetenango

Huehuetenango

Huehuetenango is a city and a municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango . The municipality's population was over 81,000 people in 2002....
, Southern Mam spoken in and around Quetzaltenango

Quetzaltenango

Quetzaltenango, more commonly known as Xela is the second most populous city of Guatemala, after Guatemala City. It is both the capital of Quetzaltenango Department and the municipal seat of Quetzaltenango municipality....
and Central Mam spoken in and around San Marcos

San Marcos (department)

San Marcos is a Departments of Guatemala in Guatemala. The capital is the city of San Marcos, San Marcos.# Ayutla# Catarina, San Marcos# Comitancillo...
. Because of a lack of literacy skills and interaction, the language can vary widely from village to village, even though the villages may be separated by just a few miles.

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Encyclopedia

The Mam language is a member of the Mamean branch of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by the Mam people

Mam people

Guatemala

Departments of Guatemala

|||}Guatemala is divided into 22 Department :#Alta Verapaz Department#Baja Verapaz Department#Chimaltenango Department#Chiquimula Department...
of Huehuetenango

Huehuetenango

Quetzaltenango

San Marcos (department)

Phonology

In the charts below each of the Mam phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the practical orthography developed by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG) and sanctioned by the Guatemalan government. Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
appears in brackets.

Vowels

Mam has five short and five long vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
s. Although vowel length is normally indicated in linguistic studies on the language, by doubling the vowel letter, the current version of the practical orthography does not distinguish long and short vowels.

Short	Long
i	ii	close front unrounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel The close front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is i....
e	ee	mid front unrounded vowel Mid front unrounded vowel The International Phonetic Alphabet distinguishes two mid front unrounded vowels:The close-mid front unrounded vowel* []The open-mid front unrounded vowel* []...
a	aa	open central unrounded vowel
u	uu	close back rounded vowel Close back rounded vowel The close back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
o	oo	mid back rounded vowel Mid back rounded vowel The International Phonetic Alphabet distinguishes two mid back rounded vowels:#The close-mid back rounded vowel #The open-mid back rounded vowel ...

Consonants

Like other Mayan languages, Mam does not distinguish voiced

Voice (phonetics)

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sound, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced....
and voiceless stops

Stop consonant

A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms....
and affricates

Affricate consonant

Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....
but instead distinguishes plain and glottalized

Glottalic consonant

A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution of the glottis .Glottalic sounds may involve motion of the larynx upward or downward, producing an egressive or ingressive glottalic airstream mechanism respectively....
stops and affricates. The plain stops and affricates (technically "pulmonic egressive") are usually voiceless and are aspirated

Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
at the ends of words and unaspirated elsewhere. The glottalized stops and affricates are usually ejective

Ejective consonant

In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspiration or tenuis consonants....
in the case of k', tz', ch', tx', and ky', and implosive

Implosive consonant

Implosive consonants are stop consonant with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs....
in the case of b' and q'; either is possible for t'.

	Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...		Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....		Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate ....		Retroflex Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar consonant to palatal consonant region of the mouth....		Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate . Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex consonant....		Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....		Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the Palatine uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants....		Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all....
	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain	glottalized	plain
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered soft palate in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue....	m		n
Stop Stop consonant A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms....	p	b'	t	t'					ky	ky'	k	k'	q	q'	'
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....			tz	tz'	ch	ch'	tx	tx'
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...			s		xh		x								j
Rhotic Rhotic consonant Rhotic consonants, or "R"-like sounds, are non-lateral liquid consonants. This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically, though most of them share some acoustic peculiarities, most notably a lowered third formant in their sound spectrum....			r
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and "typical" consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence....			l						y		w

Mam language

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

External links