Awakatek (also known as Aguateco, Awaketec, Coyotin, Chalchitec, and Balamiha, and natively as Qa'yol) is a

Mayan language Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

spoken in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, primarily in

Huehuetenango Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American High ...

and around

Aguacatán Aguacatán () is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated at above sea level. The municipality has a population of 49,607 (2018 census) and covers an area of 287 km². Geography Aguacatán is s ...

. The language only has fewer than 10,000 speakers, and is considered vulnerable by UNESCO. In addition, the language in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

is at high risk of endangerment, with fewer than 2,000 speakers in the state of Campeche in 2010 (although the number of speakers was unknown as of 2000). Awakatek is closely related to Ixil and the two languages together form the sub-branch Ixilean, which together with the Mamean languages, Mam and Tektitek, form a sub-branch Greater-Mamean, which again, together with the Greater-Quichean languages, ten Mayan languages, including Kʼicheʼ, form the branch Quichean–Mamean.

Etymology

The Awakatek people themselves refer to their language as ''qaʼyol'', literally meaning 'our word'. They also call themselves ''qatanum'', which means 'our people' and is distinct from the word ''Awakatec'', which is used in Spanish in reference to the municipality of Aguacatán (which means ''place of abundant avocados'' and refers to agricultural production and not specifically to the indigenous people).

Phonology

Vowels

Diphthongs

There are four diphthongs: ay , ey , oy , uy .

Consonants

The coronal ejectives may be allophonically

pre-voiced Prevoicing, in phonetics, is voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology, prevoicing is transcribe ...

References

Agglutinative languages Mayan languages Indigenous languages of Central America Mesoamerican languages Languages of Guatemala Huehuetenango Department {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub