 Tzotzil people in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 550,274 (2020)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Mexico ( Chiapas) | |
| Languages | |
| Tzotzil and Mexican Spanish | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Maya people |
The Tzotzil are an Indigenous Maya people of the central highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.[2] As of 2000, they numbered about 298,000. The municipalities with the largest Tzotzil population are Chamula (48,500), San Cristóbal de las Casas (30,700), and Zinacantán (24,300), in the Mexican state of Chiapas.[3][4]
The Tzotzil language, like Tzeltal and Ch'ol, is descended from the proto-Ch'ol spoken in the late classic period at sites such as Palenque and Yaxchilan.[5] The word tzotzil originally meant "bat people" or "people of the bat" in the Tzotzil language (from sotz' "bat").[6] Today the Tzotzil refer to their language as Bats'i k'op, which means "true language".[7]: I:p.162, 234
- ^ INEGI.
- ^ Vogt, Evon Z. (1983). Ofrendas para los dioses: análisis simbólico de rituales zinacantecos. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. As cited by Alfredo López Austin (1997), p. 133, 148 and following.
- ^ Rodríguez, Maria Concepción Obregón (2003). Tzotziles (PDF). Mexico: PNUD. ISBN 970-753-007-3.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Peoples of the World Foundation (1009) The Tzotzil Online version accessed on 2009-08-16.
- ^ Coe, Michael D. (1999). The Maya (6th ed.). New York: Thames & Hudson. pp. 134–136. ISBN 0-500-28066-5.
- ^ Laughlin, Robert M. (1975). The great Tzotzil dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- ^ Laughlin, Robert M. (1988). The great Tzotzil dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.