A vocabulary checklist for early lexical development in Tseltal
- Marisa Casillas Marisa Casillas ORCID profile. (opens in new tab) , mcasillas@uchicago.edu(compose email, opens in email app.), University of Chicago (opens in new tab)
- Ruthe Foushee Ruthe Foushee ORCID profile. (opens in new tab) , Psychology, New School (opens in new tab)
- Humbertina Gómez Pérez, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (opens in new tab)
- Juan Méndez Girón, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (opens in new tab)
- Gilles Polian Gilles Polian ORCID profile. (opens in new tab) , Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (opens in new tab)
- Kennedy Casey Kennedy Casey ORCID profile. (opens in new tab) , Psychology, Princeton University (opens in new tab)
- Penelope Brown, Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (opens in new tab)
Abstract
This study presents a checklist for measuring the expressive vocabularies of young children acquiring the Mayan language Tseltal. Adapted from the US English MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and tested with 84 Tseltal-acquiring children (9–23 months), this Tseltal checklist shows desired within- and across-subcategory variability in age of acquisition, expected age- and gender-related change, and typical patterns of relative over- and under-representation in the most cross-linguistically stable domains. We discuss potential uses of the checklist and the next steps in its future development.
Keywords:
- vocabulary checklist
- parent report
- Tseltal
- Mayan
Funding
- Name
- NSF CAREER Award
- Funding ID
- 2238609
Published on
2 August 2025
Peer Reviewed