Pech or Paya is a
Chibchan language
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
spoken in
Honduras. According to
Ethnologue there were a thousand speakers in 1993. It has also been referred to as Seco and Bayano.
[ It is spoken near the north-central coast of Honduras, in the Dulce Nombre de Culmí municipality of ]Olancho Department
Olancho is the largest of all the 18 Departments of Honduras, departments into which Honduras is divided. The department covers a total surface area of 24,057 km² and has an estimated 2015 population of 537,306 inhabitants.
The departmental ...
.
Distribution
According to Dennis Holt (1999), Pech is spoken by perhaps around 600 people in Olancho Department
Olancho is the largest of all the 18 Departments of Honduras, departments into which Honduras is divided. The department covers a total surface area of 24,057 km² and has an estimated 2015 population of 537,306 inhabitants.
The departmental ...
and Colón Department of Honduras. Pech used to be spoken in the town of Dulce Nombre de Culmí in the Río Guampú watershed, but Pech speakers moved out of the town due to the influx of Ladino migrants. The three primary Pech settlements are as follows.
*Vallecito, about 5 km northwest of Dulce Nombre de Culmí. It had 120 inhabitants in 1975.
*Marañones, also known as Pueblo Nuevo Subirana or Kahã Wayka (New Town). This town is about 15 km north of Dulce Nombre de Culmí. It had 150 inhabitants in 1975.
*El Carbón, originally known as Santa María del Carbón. It is located near the Quebrada Agua Amarilla in a higher mountain valley in the upper Río Seco watershed, and is about 35 km north of Culmí and about 30 km northeast of San Esteban. It had about 300 inhabitants in 1975.
Vallecito and Marañones are both located in the foothills of the Sierra de Agalta.
Other smaller Pech settlements which have at most several ethnic Pech families are scattered around northern Olancho Department
Olancho is the largest of all the 18 Departments of Honduras, departments into which Honduras is divided. The department covers a total surface area of 24,057 km² and has an estimated 2015 population of 537,306 inhabitants.
The departmental ...
, including the following (Holt 1999).
* La Danta
* Aguazarca
* Aguaquire
* Pisijiri
* Jocomico
At the time of initial Spanish contact, Pech was most likely spoken from Trujillo in the west to Cabo Gracias a Dios
Cabo Gracias a Dios is a cape located in the middle of the east coast of Central America, within what is variously called the Mosquito Coast and La Mosquitia. It is the point where the Rio Coco flows into the Caribbean, and is the border bet ...
in the east, and as far south as the upper Patuca River
The Patuca is a river in northeastern Honduras, formed southeast of Juticalpa by the merger of the Guayape and Guayambre rivers. It is the second largest river in Central America and the longest river of Honduras, measuring almost long and dra ...
(Holt 1999). Tol (Jicaque) would have been spoken just to the west.
Orthography
* a - /ə* â - ː* ã - * b - /β* ch - ͡ʃ* e - /ɛ* ê - ː* ẽ - * h - * i - * î - ː* ĩ - * k - /g* kw - ʷ/gʷ* l - * m - * n - * ñ - * o - /ɔ* ô - ː* õ - * p - * r - * rr - * s - * sh - /t͡ʃ* t - * u - * û - ː* ũ - * v - /β* w - /ⁿw̃* y - /dj~ɲ
In Pech, the high tone is shown with an accent over the vowel, and unmarked vowels are of the low tone.Paya alphabet, pronunciation, and language
Omniglot.
Phonology
Pech is a tonal language with 16 consonants and 10 vowels (Holt 1999). There are two tones, namely a high tone and a low tone. Both consonants and vowels display length contrast and nasalization.
Consonants
Allophones of the sounds /b, ʃ, j, k, kʷ, w/ are realized as
, tʃ, ᵈj~ɲ, ɡ, ɡʷ, ᵑw̃
Vowels/Nasals
Grammar
Pech is an
SOV (subject–object–verb) language (Holt 1999). It is a synthetic language which uses mostly suffixes, but also prefixes, vocalic ablaut, and reduplication as well.
References
*Holt, Dennis Graham. (1986).''The Development of the Paya Sound-System.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles.
*Holt, Dennis Graham. (1989). "On Paya Causatives." ''Estudios de Lingüística Chibcha'' 8: 7-15. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica.
*Holt, Dennis Graham. (1999). ''Pech (Paya).'' Languages of the World/Materials 366. Munich: LincomEuropa.
{{Chibchan languages
Subject–object–verb languages
Chibchan languages
Tonal languages
Languages of Honduras