Editing Tzeltal language (section)

{{Short description|Mayan language of Mexico}}
{{distinguish|Tzotzil language}}
{{use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Tzeltal
| nativename       = {{lang|tzh|Batsʼil Kʼop}}
| states           = [[Mexico]]
| region           = [[Chiapas]]
| ethnicity        = [[Tzeltal people|Tzeltal]]
| speakers         = {{sigfig|589144|2}}
| date=2020 census
| ref              = <ref>[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.</ref>
| familycolor      = Mayan
| fam1             = [[Mayan languages|Mayan]]
| fam2             = [[Cholan languages|Cholan–Tzeltalan]]
| fam3             = Tzeltalan
| iso3             = tzh
| glotto           = tzel1254
| glottorefname    = Tzeltal
| notice           = IPA
| map              = Mayan Language Map.svg
| mapcaption       = Map showing languages of the Mayan family
}}

'''Tzeltal''' or '''Tseltal''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|(|t|)|s|ɛ|l|t|ɑː|l}})<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh</ref> is a [[Mayan languages|Mayan language]] spoken in the [[Mexican state]] of [[Chiapas]], mostly in the municipalities of [[Ocosingo]], [[Altamirano Municipality|Altamirano]], [[Huixtán]], [[Tenejapa]], [[Yajalón]], [[Chanal, Chiapas|Chanal]], [[Sitalá]], [[Amatenango del Valle]], [[Socoltenango]], [[Las Rosas, Chiapas|Las Rosas]], [[Chilón]], [[San Juan Cancuc]], [[San Cristóbal de las Casas]] and [[Oxchuc]]. Tzeltal is one of many [[Mayan languages]] spoken near this eastern region of [[Chiapas]], including [[Tzotzil language|Tzotzil]], [[Chʼol language|Chʼol]], and [[Tojolabʼal language|Tojolabʼal]], among others. There is also a small Tzeltal [[diaspora]] in other parts of [[Mexico]] and the [[United States]], primarily as a result of unfavorable economic conditions in [[Chiapas]].{{sfn|Polian|2006|p=12}}

The area in which Tzeltal is spoken can be divided in half by an imaginary north–south line; to the west, near [[Oxchuc]], is the ancestral home of the [[Tzeltal people]], predating [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonials]], while the eastern portion was settled primarily in the second half of the twentieth century.{{sfn|Polian|2006|p=12}} Partially as a result of these migrations, during which the [[Tzeltal people]] and other cultural groups found each other in close proximity, four different dialects of Tzeltal have been described:  north, central (including [[Oxchuc]]), south, and southeast, though the southeastern dialect is today spoken only by a few elderly and geographically dispersed speakers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=The linguistics of Southeast Chiapas, Mexico |publisher=Bringham Young UP |year=1988 |location=Provo}}</ref> It is a living language with some 371,730 speakers as of 2005, including approximately 50,000 [[monolingual]]s.<ref name="Ethnologue">{{ethnologue|tzh}}</ref>