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 ...
of Guatemala, spoken by the
Kʼicheʼ people
Kʼicheʼ (pronounced ; previous Spanish spelling: ) are indigenous peoples of the Americas and are one of the Maya peoples. The Kʼicheʼ language is a Mesoamerican language in the Mayan language family. The highland Kʼicheʼ states in the ...
of the central highlands. With over a million speakers (some 7% of Guatemala's population), Kʼicheʼ is the second most widely-spoken language in the country, after
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
.
The Central dialect is the most commonly used in media and education. Despite a low literacy rate, Kʼicheʼ is increasingly taught in schools and used on the radio. The most famous work in the
Classical Kʼicheʼ language
Classical may refer to:
European antiquity
*Classical antiquity, a period of history from roughly the 7th or 8th century B.C.E. to the 5th century C.E. centered on the Mediterranean Sea
*Classical architecture, architecture derived from Greek and ...
is the ''
Popol Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and ...
'' (''Popol Wuʼuj'' in modern spelling).
Dialects
Kaufman (1970) divides the Kʼicheʼ complex into the following five dialects, with the representative municipalities given as well (quoted in Par Sapón 2000:17):
;East
*
Cubulco
Cubulco is a small town, with a population of 10,681 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de Population of cities & to ...
*
Rabinal
Rabinal is a small town, with a population of 15,157 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de Population of cities & to ...
*
San Miguel Chicaj
San Miguel Chicaj () is a town and municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. San Miguel Chicaj has an area of 280 Km², which makes one of the largest municipality of Baja Verapaz Department. It has a population of 33,131 (2018 c ...
;West
*
Nahualá
Nahualá () is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala. The town is sometimes known as Santa Catalina Nahualá in honor of the town's patron saint, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, but the official name is just "Nahualá". Formerly, ...
*
Santa Clara La Laguna
Santa Clara La Laguna () is a municipality in the Sololá department of 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 ...
*
Santa LucÃa Utatlán Santa LucÃa Utatlán () is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala.
Climate
Santa Lucia Utatlan has a subtropical highland climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in ...
*
Aldea Argueta
Aldea is a Spanish word meaning "hamlet". It may refer to:
People
*Alexander I Aldea (1397–1436), Prince of Wallachia
* Aurel Aldea (1887–1949), Romanian general and anti-communist resistance leader
* Bogdan Aldea (born 1981), Romanian footba ...
Momostenango
Momostenango is a town and municipality in the Totonicapán department of Guatemala. The municipality is situated in the North-West of Totonicapán, in the Western highlands of Guatemala.
Population
Momostenango's population is predominantly of M ...
;Central
*
Santa MarÃa Chiquimula
Santa MarÃa Chiquimula is a town, with a population of 15,919 (2018 census), and a municipality in the Totonicapán department of Guatemala. Located in the western highlands of Guatemala at an altitude of 2130 metres. The municipality has an are ...
Nahualá
Nahualá () is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala. The town is sometimes known as Santa Catalina Nahualá in honor of the town's patron saint, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, but the official name is just "Nahualá". Formerly, ...
dialect of Kʼicheʼ shows some differences from other Kʼicheʼ dialects. It preserves an ancient
Proto-Mayan
Proto-Mayan is the hypothetical common ancestor of the 30 living Mayan languages, as well as the Classic Maya language documented in the Maya inscriptions. While there has been some controversy with Mayan subgrouping, there has been a general agr ...
Kʼicheʼ has a rather conservative phonology. It has not developed many of the innovations found in neighboring languages, such as retroflex consonants or tone.
Stress
Stress is not phonemic. It occurs on the final syllable and on every other syllable before the final in an iambic pattern.
Unstressed vowels are frequently reduced (to or ) or elided altogether, which often produces
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s even word-initially. For example, ''sibʼalaj'' "very" may be pronounced and ''je na laʼ ''"thus" .
Vowels
Kʼicheʼ dialects differ in their vowel systems. Historically, Kʼicheʼ had a ten-vowel system: five short and five long. Some dialects (such as Nahualá and Totonicapán) retain the ten-vowel system. Others (such as Cantel) have reduced it to a six-vowel system with no length distinctions: short /a/ has become /É™/ in these dialects, and the other short vowels have merged with their long counterparts. Different conventions for spelling the vowels have been proposed, including by the Proyecto LingüÃstico Francisco MarroquÃn, the
Summer Institute of Linguistics
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...
, and the
Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala The Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, or ALMG (English: ''Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages'') is a Guatemalan organisation that regulates the use of the 22 Mayan languages spoken within the borders of the republic. It has expended particu ...
. This table shows the two vowel systems and several of the spelling systems that have been proposed:
Vowels typically undergo syncope in
penultimate
Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...
syllables, which allows for a wide array of complex onsets.
Diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
are found in recent loanwords.
Consonants
Kʼicheʼ has
pulmonic
In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for sound p ...
stops and affricates, /p/, /t/, /ts/, /tʃ/, /k/, and /q/, and
glottalized
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consona ...
counterparts /ɓ/, /tʼ/, /tsʼ/, /tʃʼ/, /kʼ/, and /qʼ/. The glottalized /ɓ/ is a weak
implosive
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. Ro ...
, and the other glottalized consonants are
ejectives
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
. The pulmonic stops and affricates are typically aspirated.
In West Quiche, the approximants /l/, /r/, /j/, and /w/ devoice and fricate to , , , and word-finally and often before voiceless consonants. In the dialect of
Santa MarÃa Chiquimula
Santa MarÃa Chiquimula is a town, with a population of 15,919 (2018 census), and a municipality in the Totonicapán department of Guatemala. Located in the western highlands of Guatemala at an altitude of 2130 metres. The municipality has an are ...
, intervocalic alternates between and , a highly-unusual sound change. The fricative is most common in the vicinity of the vowels /a(:)/ and /o(:)/.
Syllabic structure
Complex onsets are very common in Kʼicheʼ, partially because of the active process of penultimate syncope. Complex codas are rare except when the first member of the complex coda is a phonemic
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
, which is written with an apostrophe. The sonorants /m, n, l, r/ may be
syllabic
Syllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
*Abugida, writing system ...
.
Orthography
Historically, different
orthographies
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
Popol Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and ...
, is based on Spanish orthography and has been replaced by a new standardized orthography, defined by the ALMG (
Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala The Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, or ALMG (English: ''Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages'') is a Guatemalan organisation that regulates the use of the 22 Mayan languages spoken within the borders of the republic. It has expended particu ...
). The ethnohistorian and Mayanist
Dennis Tedlock
Dennis Ernest Tedlock (June 19, 1939 – June 3, 2016) was the McNulty Professor of English and Research Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
He received his Ph.D. in 1968 from Tulane University. In 1986, he ...
uses his own transliteration system, which is completely different from any of the established orthographies.
Morphology
Like other
Mayan languages
The Mayan languagesIn linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and as ...
, Kʼicheʼ uses two sets of agreement markers, known to Mayanists as "Set A" and "Set B" markers, which can appear on both nouns and verbs. "Set A" markers are used on nouns to mark possessor agreement and on verbs to agree with the transitive subject (
ergative case
In grammar, the ergative case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that identifies the noun as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutive languages.
Characteristics
In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most ...
). "Set B" markers are used on verbs to agree with the transitive object or the intransitive subject (
absolutive case
In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative†...
).
Pronouns
Kʼicheʼ distinguishes six pronouns classified by person and number. Gender and case are not marked on pronouns, which are often omitted since subject and object agreement are obligatorily marked on the verb.
Verbs
Kʼicheʼ verbs are morphologically complex and can take numerous prefixes and suffixes, which serve both inflectional and derivational purposes. Agreement follows an ergative/absolutive pattern: subjects of transitive verbs are indexed with Set A markers, while intransitive subjects and transitive objects are indexed with Set B markers. Aspect and mood are also indicated via verbal morphology, as is movement: the prefix ul- in the movement slot indicates movement towards the speaker, and the prefix e- (or bʼe- in some varieties) indicates movement away from the speaker.
The table below shows the inflectional template of a Kʼicheʼ verb.
The last morpheme on a verb, the so-called "status suffix," is a portmanteau morpheme, the form of which is determined by a set of rules that includes factors such as:
* whether the verb is transitive or intransitive
* whether the verb's mood is indicative or imperative
* whether or not the verb contains a movement marker
* whether or not the verb falls at the end of an intonational phrase
Voice and derivation
The examples above involve verbs with simple stems. Verb stems may also be morphologically complex. Complex stems may involve voice suffixes:
*
Causative
In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
Passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
Antipassive
The antipassive voice (abbreviated or ) is a type of grammatical voice that either does not include the object or includes the object in an oblique case. This construction is similar to the passive voice, in that it decreases the verb's valency ...
: -n, -on or -un (-mes- "sweep (something) clean", -mes-on- "sweep up")
Also, derivational suffixes may be included, many of which form verb stems from other parts of speech. For instance, the versive suffix -ir or -ar forms verb stems from adjectives: utz "good", -utz-ir- "get good"; nim "big", -nim-ar- "get big." Multiple suffixes can appear within a single stem: -nim-ar- "get big", -nim-ar-isa- "enlarge (something)", -nim-ar-isa-x- "be enlarged."
Syntax
As with all other
Mayan languages
The Mayan languagesIn linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and as ...
, Kʼicheʼ has an ergative pattern of verb agreement and often uses verb-object-subject (VOS) word order. Most modern speakers use SOV, SVO, and VSO word orders interchangeably. Language purists have tried to preserve the traditional verb-initial word order, but influence from Spanish (an SVO language) promotes a subject-initial order.
Babytalk
Contrary to how many other languages use high pitch in child directed speech (babytalk), Kʼicheʼ babytalk has been shown not to use high pitch. Mayans, in fact, lower their pitch slightly when they speak to children since in Quiche Mayan culture, high pitch is very often used to address persons of high status.
Loanwords in other languages
The UTZ label for sustainable farming got its name from ("good coffee").
Middle American Research Institute
The Middle American Research Institute was established at Tulane University in 1924.
Mission
The Middle American Research Institute seeks to study and safeguard the culture and history of the areas of Mesoamerica and lower Central America. The Ins ...
,
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
Institute for Mesoamerican Studies
An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes can ...
Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a digital repository housed in LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at the University of Texas at Austin. AILLA is a digital language archive dedicated to the digi ...