70 BUREAU OF 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 vV, 
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 vul 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 “Maya- 
than,” 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 Honduras, and the eastern part of Tabasco; Pimentel 
(11, 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 Lacan- 
don, 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 Lacandénes. 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 Lacandénes may be considered as extending from the mountains of 
Chamma, a day and a half from Cobdén, along the borders of the Rio de la Pasion to 
Petén, or even farther. 
