Achi (''Achí'' in Spanish) 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 ...

very closely related to Kʼicheʼ (''Quiché'' in the older orthography). It is spoken by the

Achi people The Achi are a Maya ethnic group in Guatemala. They live in various municipalities in the department of Baja Verapaz. The municipalities they live in are Cubulco, Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, Salamá, San Jerónimo, and Purulhá, in addition to pa ...

, primarily in the department of

Baja Verapaz Baja Verapaz () is a department in Guatemala. The capital is Salamá. Baja Verapaz contains the Mario Dary Biotope Preserve, preserving the native flora and fauna of the region, especially the endangered national bird of Guatemala, the Resplen ...

in Guatemala. There are two Achi dialects. Rabinal Achi is spoken in the

Rabinal Rabinal is a small town, with a population of 15,157 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & to ...

area, and Cubulco Achi is spoken in the

Cubulco Cubulco is a small town, with a population of 10,681 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & to ...

area west of Rabinal. One of the masterpieces of precolumbian literature is the

Rabinal Achí The ''Rabinal Achí'' is a Maya theatrical play written in the Kʼicheʼ language and performed annually in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. Its original name is ''Xajoj Tun'', meaning "Dance of the Tun" instrument also known as wooden drum. Th ...

, a theatrical play written in the Achi language.

Phonology

Consonants

* Voiceless plosives can have aspirated allophones , either when preceding a consonant or in word-final position. * A pharyngeal fricative sound can be heard before vowels or in word-initial or intervocalic environments preceding vowels. * A uvular consonant can also be heard as velar in some environments. when preceding a velar consonant can be heard as a velar nasal . * Sonorants when preceding a voiceless consonant or in word-final position can occur sounding voiceless .

Vowels

Orthography

Achi uses a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

-based

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

:"Achi Pronunciation and Spelling Guide." ''Verb-Based Languages'', www.native-languages.org/achi_guide.htm.

References

External links

Collections in the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin AmericaNew Testament in AchiOLAC resources in and about the Achi language

Listen to a sample of Achi from Global Recordings Network
Agglutinative languages Mayan languages Indigenous languages of Central America Mesoamerican languages Languages of Guatemala Baja Verapaz Department {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub