Ch'ol Blog 2010, No. 6

Fractions
This might sound very mathematical, but it is more about parts or pieces of a bigger object.
The first fraction is "half": ohlil (lit. his/her/its heart)
ohlil lak papaya..... half papaya
aohlil.......your waist (lit. your half)
So there are two interesting things here: you would expect to read i yohlil
for his/her/its heart. But this would rather mean in his center. Actually the root
is the same ohl for heart, but to hold the two meanings apart, it seems to me, they don't use a possessive for the ohlil when if it "half".
Just an example: Añix hunpe' motzo' ty yohlil papaya...There's a worm in the middle of the papaya!
Next fraction: Less than half. I'm sorry to disappoint the reader, if he was expecting 1/4 or 3/7, there is no such thing in Ch'ol, but we have this:
chömb'eñon lak papaya pero ya' tz'ityya' mach ohlil....
Sell me papaya, give me a bit of it, but not half.
This means always less than half. So if you want to be more specific how much you want you will need to say it like this:
...pero ya' hunke lak papaya .....  but give me a slice (and indicate with the space between index and thumbhow how much you want - the ke glyph!!) This are "ringlike" slices.
...pero che' sisili lak papaya ..... but give me a slice (slices in shape of a canoe)

More general:
Ahk'eñon tz'ityya' mach k'omik pejtyelel.... Give me a part, I don't want all.

And finally, if the economical situation doesn't allow more:
Ahk'eñon hunxe'pel .... un pedacito!