The Historical Reconstruction of Greater Tzeltalan (Mayan) Vowel Assimilation and Vowel Raising Patterns

This paper examines the phenomenon of vowel assimilation at a distance in di‐ and trisyllabic roots and stems in the Greater Tzeltalan languages of the Mayan language family. The study focuses on changes undergone in disyllabic and trisyllabic roots and stems, characterized by either anticipatory or perseverative vowel assimilation, and discusses the historical scenarios relevant to their reconstruction to the various relevant stages (Proto‐Greater Tzeltalan, Proto‐Ch’olan, Proto‐Tzeltalan), as well as likely cases of diffusion between Ch’olan into Tzeltalan. In addition, the paper also considers the question of vowel raising in Ch’olan, i.e. the so‐called *oo > u and *ee > i shifts, identified by Kaufman and Norman and reexamined by Brown and Wichmann. We posit a series of phonetic blocking conditions, and we argue that most cases can be accounted for as examples of suffix‐controlled vowel assimilation. It is also shown that the presence of certain typical suffixes with low or mid vowels can account for the etyma that did not experience the shifts.