History of the Ch'ol Maya

There aren’t many specifics known about the Ch’ol Mayan people at the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16^th century. They were located in what is now northern Chiapas in southeastern Mexico. Some Mayan linguists suspect that the language of the Mayan hieroglyphs was an earlier form of Ch’ol. I think this puts this branch of the Maya in a particularly cool position.  They could be one of the most important branches in the history of the Maya people.  The Cholan branch of the language is known to be very conservative, meaning it has not changed very much over time.  Maybe the Ch’ol people are the closet speakers to the original Maya before the Spanish conquered them.

There are still two dialects of the Ch’ol language: the Ch’ol of Tila and the Ch’ol of Tumbala.  43,870 people speak the Ch’ol of Tila, of which 10,000 are monolinguals, and 90,000 speak the Ch’ol of Tumbala, where 1/3 of the speakers are monolinguals. I wonder if the monolingual speakers still live a very traditional Mayan life or if they have modernized at all.

               
        

These pictures show the Ch'oles location in southeastern Mexico