pronounced [taʼtel], the two [a] phonemes having been pronounced as one. The phoneme [h] may undergo a number of processes depending on context and dialect. In most dialects, most notably that of Bachajón, word-final [h] is very light and in rapid speech often disappears entirely if not protected by some other element. For example, in the Bachajón dialect, the nominal root bah ("corncob/field mouse") in isolation would lose the final [h] and sound like ba, but if the root takes the particle -e, the word will be pronounced [bahe]. This process does not hold true for word-final [j]. All dialects retain [h] before voiceless consonants. Similarly, medial [h] has disappeared from the Oxchuc dialect but not from the Bachajón dialect, such that yahl ("below") and chʼahil ("smoke") in Bachajón would be said yal and chʼail in Oxchuc. Further, in the Oxchuc dialect, an [h] preceding a plain consonant will change the consonant into an ejective stop; thus baht ("he/she went") in Oxchuc corresponds to baht in other dialects. In the majority of cases, root-initial glottal stop is pronounced, though it is often omitted in orthography. [ʼ] is only lost when the root is closely related to the preceding word. For example, the glottal stop in the particle -ʼix ("already") will never be pronounced, because the particle always attaches to the preceding word. The prefix ʼa- ("you/your") sometimes retains the glottal stop, but not when it occurs in a verb form. Similarly, the glottal stop in the particle maʼ has been lost in verbal forms. Thus, words beginning or ending with a vowel and not a glottal stop should be pronounced together with the word preceding or following it. For example, tal ix ("he already came") would sound like [talix]. Root syllable structure and stress The following is a general list of common root shapes in Tzeltal. For further examples and detail, see section 3.3 below. VC (including glottalized consonants and glides) CV CVC (including CVʼ, CVh, CVw, and CVy) CVhC CVʼC CCVC (in which the initial consonants are limited to s, x, and j). Common bisyllabic roots include: CVCV CVCVC CVhCVC CVʼCVC These final three bisyllabic root constructions result almost always from the combination of two roots, and are always nominal roots. Stress always falls on the last syllable of a word. If a root takes a suffix or if it follows a particle, the accent falls on the latter.