Paya language


Pech or Paya is a Chibchan language 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.

Distribution

According to Dennis Holt, Pech is spoken by perhaps around 600 people in Olancho Department 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 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, including the following.
At the time of initial Spanish contact, Pech was most likely spoken from Trujillo in the west to Cabo Gracias a Dios in the east, and as far south as the upper Patuca River. Tol would have been spoken just to the west.

Orthography

In Pech, the high tone is shown with an accent over the vowel, and unmarked vowels are of the low tone.

Phonology

Pech is a tonal language with 16 consonants and 10 vowels. 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 .

Vowels/Nasals

Grammar

Pech is an SOV language. It is a synthetic language which uses mostly suffixes, but also prefixes, vocalic ablaut, and reduplication as well.