Uspantek language


The Uspanteko is a Mayan language of Guatemala, closely related to Kʼicheʼ. It is spoken in the Uspantán and Playa Grande Ixcán municipios, in the Department El Quiché. It is also one of only three Mayan languages to have developed contrastive tone. It distinguishes between vowels with high tone and vowels with low tone.

Phonology

Tone

Uspantek has two phonemic tones: high and falling. In writing, the high tone is represented by an acute accent mark on the vowel, and the falling tone is represented by an acute accent mark on the first vowel followed by an unmarked vowel.
The high tone occurs in penultimate syllables when the final syllable contains a short vowel. Additionally, it occurs the following contexts.
The following types of words do not have tone.
The falling tone occurs in long vowels, and in the following contexts.
The main types of syllable structures in Uspantek are CVC, CV, and CCVC.