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70 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 44
area of Chorti types extending from Esquipulas (on the boundary line
between Guatemala and Honduras) on the south, northward to and
including Quirigua, and from Chiquimula (Guatemala) on the west to
Santa Rosa (Honduras) on the east, including Copan. In his map V,
showing present conditions, the remains of the tribe are limited to a
few very small isolated areas, chiefly about Chiquimula and Copan.
In the map accompanying the present volume Sapper's boundaries
on his map viii have been adopted in a somewhat modified form,
as Stoll's area does not appear to extend far enough northward;
moreover, he does not mark on his map the portion in Honduras.
Maya Proper
{Synonym: Mayathan.)
This language, here termed in its limited sense Maya proper
which Berendt (2 : 137), following Landa (14), designates "Mayathan,"
according to the latter author (30) was spoken throughout
the peninsula. Knowledge obtained since Landa's day has shown
that the language, including some minor dialects, was used not only
throughout the peninsula but had penetrated the borders of some of
the adjoining territories. Galindo (148-149) says that in advance
of the conquest by the Spaniards the people speaking this language
occupied all the peninsula of Yucatan, including the districts of
Peten, British tlonduras, and the eastern part of Tabasco; Pimentel
(ii, 3) says, all Yucatan, Isle of Carmen, Pueblo of Montecristo in
Tabasco, and Palenque in Chiapas. The evidence which has been
presented and a comparison of the inscriptions and ruin types tends
to exclude Palenque.
MAYA DIALECTS
Besides the chief language spoken throughout the peninsula—the
Maya proper—there were three dialects, or rather subdialects, the
differences being too slight to constitute distinct dialects, though,
with the probable exception of the last, they represent separate
tribes. These, which have been noticed by philologists, are Lacandon,
Itza (or Peten), and Mopan.
Lacandon.—The people speaking this dialect inhabit, or in the past
have inhabited, the mountainous region of the upper Usumacinta
river, in northwestern Guatemala and eastern Chiapas. Escobar
(94) says
A distinction ought to be drawn between the Western and Eastern Lacand6nes. All
the country lying on the W., between the bishopric of Ciudad Real and the province
of Vera Paz was once occupied by the Western Lacandones. . . . The country of
the Eastern Lacandones may be considered as extending from the mountains of
Chammd, a day and a half from Coban, along the borders of the Rio de la Pasion to
Peten, or even farther.