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28-581: According to the census of 2002, there are 1,983 ethnic Itza, who retain some aspects of their indigenous culture. However, the Itza language is now almost extinct. Data taken from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) suggest there were only twelve fluent Itza speakers left in 1986 and 60 non-fluent speakers in 1991. According to the census of 2002, however, there are still 1094 speakers. The Mayan word itza means 'enchanted waters' and may have been adopted from

56-538: A phrase in order to frame the phrase within the discourse as a whole. These particles convey the spatial and temporal relationships between new and old pieces of information in the discourse, creating larger discourse units. 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

84-723: A rich vocabulary for crops and animals that encodes specific information about different varietals and individuals of the species. Itza' is abbreviated " itz " in the ISO 639-3 language codes . 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. The government of Guatemala banned

112-678: A sentence order to draw emphasis to what is being spoken. The resulting sentences are thus composed of several, complete phrases such as in the sentence: in-ten EMP - 1SG . PRO k-im-bʼel INC - 1SG . A -go im-bʼen-es-eech 1SG . A -go- CAUS - 2SG in-ten k-im-bʼel im-bʼen-es-eech EMP-1SG.PRO INC-1SG.A-go 1SG.A-go-CAUS-2SG "I am going to take you." in-ten EMP - 1SG . PRO k-im-bʼel INC - 1SG . A -go inw-aʼl-e(j) 1SG . A -say- DTS tech 2SG . IO in-ten k-im-bʼel inw-aʼl-e(j) tech EMP-1SG.PRO INC-1SG.A-go 1SG.A-say-DTS 2SG.IO "I am going to tell you." The repetition of

140-536: 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. Discourse in Itzaʼ is marked by its heavy use of repetition and linguistic parallelism. Words and linguistic constructions are often repeated throughout

168-528: Is less known, but imaginable, further away in space-time. Mart%C3%ADn de Ursua Martín de Ursúa (or Urzúa) y Arizmendi ( Spanish pronunciation: [maɾˈtin de wɾˈsu.a j aɾiθˈmendi] ; February 22, 1653 – February 4, 1715), Count of Lizárraga and of Castillo , was a Spanish conquistador in Central America during the late colonial period of New Spain . Born in Olóriz , Navarre , he

196-575: Is noted for leading the 1696–97 expeditionary force which resulted in the fall of the last significant independent Maya stronghold, Nojpetén , located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá in the northern Petén Basin region of present-day Guatemala . He served as governor of the Yucatán until 1708, when he was named Governor-General of the Philippines . Around the time that he was named to that post, he

224-467: Is noted in brackets. The phonemes /d, g, f, v, r, ɲ/ have been adopted from Spanish and are present only in loanwords. The following chart shows the vowel phonemes of Itza. All vowels except /ə/ have long equivalent, and vowel length is contrastive. The Itza language does not contain tone or pitch. Possession is marked with the same ergative particle as is used in verbal constructions. Possession constructions are marked differently based on whether

252-544: 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. 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

280-484: Is unmarked. 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. Itzaʼ is an ergative-absolutive language demonstrating split ergativity . Ergative person markers indicate intransitive subjects in

308-543: The Kan Ek' of the Itza'. The Itza' were the last Maya kingdom to remain independent of the Spanish, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua , governor of Yucatán. The northern lowland Petén region includes families that can be traced back to pre-colonial Itza. Although

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336-452: The imperfective aspect and all transitive subjects, while absolutive person markers indicate intransitive subjects in the perfective aspect and in dependent clauses and all objects. Itzaʼ employs the irrealis grammatical mood to mark the future tense: the mood is coupled with a temporal adjective to form a future construction. The past tense is similarly constructed by using the perfect tense and temporal adjectives. Similarities in

364-529: The Classic Period. From their capital at Chichén Itzá , Mexico they established a trade empire reaching as far south as Naco in Honduras . Chichen Itza means 'at the mouth of the well of the Itza' in the Itza language. The books of Chilam Balam recount the history of the Itza and the demise of their empire at the hands of a band of Mexicanized Putún Maya led by the mercenary king Hunac Ceel , founder of

392-532: The Cocom dynasty of Mayapan . Hunac Ceel fought the Itzas but was taken captive and was to be sacrificed by being thrown into the cenote of Chichén Itzá. However, he survived the attempted sacrifice, and having spent a night in the water he was able to relate a prophecy of the rain god Chac about the year's coming harvest. Once lord of Mayapan, he orchestrated, aided by sorcery, the destruction of Chichén Itzá. While part of

420-528: The Itza language is near extinction, Itza agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants, may still tell much about how pre-colonial Itza managed the Maya lowlands. Itza%E2%80%99 language Itzaʼ (also known as Itza or Itzaj ) is an endangered Mayan language spoken by the Itza people near Lake Peten Itza in north-central Guatemala and neighboring Belize . The language has about 1,000 fluent speakers, all older adults. Itzaʼ

448-519: The Nahuatl tah itza ("place of the Itzá"). The Itza' were at the height of their territorial expansion when Cortes arrived on the coastal cities of Chakán Putum and Potonchán in 1519. The Itza' empire covered 230,000 square kilometers, organised into 4 main kingdoms, all of which were subordinate to the Itza': The Nahua princess Malintzin (La Malinche / Doña Marina) and 6 other women were given to Cortes at

476-537: The end of the Battle of Cuintla as a peace act by the Kan Ek' Paxbolon Nachan. In 1523, after the fall of the Aztecs, Hernán Cortés led an expedition to what is now Honduras. While in the territory of the Itza' Empire, he executed the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc , for conspiring to kill him. He later visited Nojpetén with an army of Spaniards and 600 Chontal Maya on his way to Honduras in 1523 and he celebrated mass with

504-425: The irrealis and perfect constructions may suggest that the Itzaʼ consider the past and future to be similar, which reflects the Itzaʼ worldview that time is cyclical . 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

532-628: The name of the lake itself. The Itza were descended from the Ah Itzá Yucatecan Maya lineage; historically they were an important Mesoamerican people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in the Post-classic period . The Itza may have originated from the Classic Period city of Motul de San José near lake Peten Itza in Guatemala , migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of

560-461: The only modern speakers of the language live. The modern Itza people are the last of the Lowland Maya to be able to directly trace their heritage back to the pre-Columbian era . The Itzaʼ language reflects this history in its nomenclature for the natural world: Itzaʼ words referring to agriculture and agricultural practices remain unchanged since first being recorded. Additionally, Itzaʼ possesses

588-405: 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. All nouns in Itzaʼ possess grammatical gender . The masculine and feminine genders are overtly marked by a prefix, while the neutral gender

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616-465: The pronoun in-ten and the verb k-im-bʼel , as well as the near-repetition of the pronoun eech/tech , is typical of Itzaʼ discourse. Such literary style is comparable to parataxis in English, a style of discourse where simple, coordinating sentences are preferred over long, subordinating sentences. Discourse, both common and mythological, often employs framing particles—particles placed before and after

644-407: 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. Itzaʼ

672-587: The story of Hunac Ceel seem to be more mythical than historical, it is generally accepted that the Itza of Chichén Itzá were the eventual losers in a power struggle between the three Yucatecan lineages of the Cocom , the Xiu and the Itzá, all claiming heritage from the Toltecs . And around 1331 archeological remains attest that Chichén Itzá and other Itza dominated sites, for example Isla Cerritos, were abandoned. The fall of these sites

700-406: 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. Itzaʼ possesses a rich vocabulary of agriculture and taxonomy. Itza has specific words to encode various properties of different varietals and individuals within

728-571: Was contemporary with a gradual incursion of Mexicanized Putún Maya from Tabasco and central Mexico , and it seems that these were indeed the people who caused the fall of the original Itza state. The Itza then left or were expelled from the Yucatán region and returned south to the Petén Basin region to build the city Nojpetén as their capital. Noj peten means "great island" in Itza'. The early Spanish accounts referred to it as Tayasal, derived from

756-718: Was made a knight of the Order of Santiago . He died in Manila in 1715. Ursúa arrived to Mexico around 1680 and initially served as a lawyer in Mexico City until 1692. He used this period to cement relationships with colonial officials in Yucatán. In 1692 he was appointed to be governor of Yucatán, with his term to begin in 1698. By 1694 he had been appointed as alcalde ordinario (a Spanish colonial official) of Mexico City. Ursúa took office in Yucatán four years earlier than planned, becoming acting governor on 17 December 1694. Martín de Ursúa

784-659: Was the language of administration across much of the Yucatán Peninsula during the supremacy of Chichen Itza . Later, the Itza people had the last independent Maya nation in Mesoamerica until 1697. During this time, the Itza people resettled their ancestral home in the Petén Basin . The subjugation of the Itza capital by the Spanish forced the Itza people to flee or live amongst the Spaniards, such as in San Jose, Guatemala , where

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