Qʼanjobʼal (), (also Kanjobal) 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 primarily 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 ...

and part of

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 ...

. According to 1998 estimates compiled by

SIL International 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 ...

in ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'', there were approximately 77,700 native speakers, primarily in the

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 ...

Department of Guatemala. Municipalities where the Qʼanjobʼal language is spoken include

San Juan Ixcoy San Juan Ixcoy (also known as in Qʼanjobʼal) is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. The municipality covers an area of and is formed by the town of San Juan Ixcoy, 11 villages and 33 ''caserios'' (rural communities ...

(''Yich Kʼox''),

San Pedro Soloma San Pedro Soloma (also known as in Qʼanjobʼal) is a town and municipality of Huehuetenango, a department of Guatemala. It is located in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes at 2,300 m above sea level. The municipality covers a total area of 264 ...

(''Tzʼulumaʼ ''), Santa Eulalia (''Jolom Konobʼ ''), Santa Cruz Barillas (''Yalmotx''), San Rafael La Independencia, and

San Miguel Acatán San Miguel Acatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of 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 ...

(Pedro Mateo Pedro 2010). Qʼanjobʼal is taught in public schools through Guatemala's intercultural bilingual education programs.

Classification

Qʼanjobʼal is a member of the Qʼanjobʼalan branch of the Mayan language family. The Mayan language family includes 31 languages, two of which are now extinct. The Qʼanjobʼalan branch includes not only Qʼanjobʼal itself but also

Chuj Chuj might refer to: * A component of Russian and Polish profanity * Chuj language, a Mayan language spoken in western Guatemala and southern Mexico * Chuj people The Chuj or Chuh are a Maya people, whose homeland is in Guatemala and Mexico. Popula ...

, Akatek, and Jakaltek, also spoken in Guatemala. The Qʼanjobʼalan languages are noted for being among the most conservative of the Mayan language family, although they do include some interesting innovations.

Phonology

Qʼanjobʼal consists of 26 consonant sounds and 5 vowel sounds. The letters of the alphabet are as follows: The ʼ in chʼ, kʼ, qʼ, tʼ, txʼ, and tzʼ represents an ejective or glottalic egressive, i.e., the consonant is accompanied by a puff of air from the glottis. The letter ''r'' in Qʼanjobʼal has a limited distribution. It is used mostly in borrowings, primarily in words borrowed from Spanish, such as ''roxax'', rose, from Spanish ''rosa''. It is also used in affect and positional words like ''kʼarari'' 'noise of an old engine or the like', ''jeran'' 'to be in a broken position/form'. The letters ''tx'' and ''x'' represent

retroflex consonant A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the har ...

s, pronounced with the tongue curled backward in the mouth. It is believed such retroflection in Qʼanjobʼal is an influence from the Mamean Mayan languages.

Stress

Primary stress in Qʼanjobʼal is fairly simple. Words in isolation and in final phrase boundaries bear stress on the last syllable. However, words within a phrasal unit (not in final phrase boundary) bear stress on their first syllable.

Morphology and syntax

Verbs

As in all Mayan languages, Qʼanjobʼal classifies all

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

s as either inherently ''intransitive'' (calling up only one argument) or as inherently ''transitive'' (calling up two arguments). Qʼanjobʼal is an ergative–absolutive language, in which the subject of a

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transiti ...

takes an ergative affix, while the subject of an

intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...

, as well as the

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

of a transitive verb, takes an absolutive affix. There are two sets of

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

es for ergative: the first set is used for those verbal roots beginning with a consonant, and the second set is used for those beginning with a vowel. Ergative affixes are also used for

possession Possession may refer to: Law * Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance * Drug possession, a crime * Ownership * ...

. There is only one set of absolutive affixes with two variations: pronounced like free words or attached to something else. Note that the third person absolutive affix is Ø, i.e., unmarked or empty. However, while verbs are classified as either ergative or absolutive and take their own respective sets of pronoun affixes, this rule is altered in certain cases, such as when a verb becomes progressive: but,

Aspect

In Qʼanjobʼal,

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

(whether an action has been completed or not) is more important than tense. Thus, in most utterances, one will indicate whether the action is incompletive, or whether it is completed, or may happen in the future, in which case it is considered 'unreal', or of

irrealis mood In linguistics, irrealis moods (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contras ...

, the event still only in the realm of thought or imagination.

Incompletive

''Ch(i)'' is used to indicate that an event is incomplete or ongoing at some time:

Completive

''Max'' or ''x-'' (both forms are used in free variation) are used to indicate that an event is complete:

Future/Irrealis

The prefix ''hoq-'' with the suffix ''-oq'' are used to indicate that the event spoken of has not yet happened, but remains only in the realm of the 'unreal' with only the potential for occurrence in the future:

Negative

Negative particles include ''kʼam'' and ''manaq'':

Interrogative

Questions can be formed simply by using rising intonation with declarative syntax: There is also a question particle, ''mi'': (Used as common form of greeting, like English 'How are you?')

Affixation

Many different affixes are used in Qʼanjobʼal, both prefixes and suffixes. Among these are aj-, used to denote the doer or leader of an action: ''ajtzʼibʼ'', ʼwriterʼ (< ''tzʼibʼ'' 'write'), ''ajbʼe'', 'spiritual guide' (< ''bʼe'' 'road'); ''-bʼal'', used to indicate the location where something happens: ''tzombʼal'' 'market' (< ''tzon'' 'buy'); ''-al'', ''-alil'', ''-il'', used to derive abstract nouns from adjectives, adverbs, numerals, transitive verb roots, and nouns: ''syalixhal'' 'his/her smallness' (< ''yalixh'' 'small'); ''swinaqil'' 'husband' (< ''winaq'' 'man'); ''-kʼulal'', to derive nouns from intransitive verbs, adjectives, other nouns, etc.: ''watxkʼulal'' 'friendliness'; ''-oj'', nominalizer, turning verbs into nouns: ''kuyoj'' 'studying' (< ''kuy'' 'study').

Word order

Qʼanjobʼal has a fixed

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...

. It follows a

verb–subject–object A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

(VSO) word order. All changes to this word order are driven by pragmatic or syntactic factors like focus, negation, interrogation, relativization, etc. These are subject to an ergative–absolutive pattern where arguments cross-referenced by ergative affixes must become absolutives prior to their fronting (focus, negation, etc.). This results in some possible subject–verb (SV), object–verb–subject (OVS) orders. However SVO, SOV and OSV are not possible (or, at least, not attested in any known corpus). The apparent exception is in reflexives and reflexive possessives, where the reflexive phrase ERG-bʼa (noun) or reflexive possessive ERG-noun appears directly following the verb.

Classifiers

Some Qʼanjobʼal nouns require that certain classifiers be used with them. Among these are ''no (animals), ''te'' (trees/wood), ''ix'' (female), ''naq'' (male), ''chʼen'' (stone/metal), ''xim'' (corn), and ''an'' (plants).

Reduplication

Reduplication, or duplication of a root word, is a minor process in the formation of Qʼanjobʼal vocabulary, as in the following:

Vocabulary

Qʼanjobʼal consists of groups of

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

s that can take affixes. Words are traditionally classified as

nouns A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

adjectives In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...

adverbs An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering que ...

intransitive In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...

and transitive

particle In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...

s, and positionals. Positionals are a group of roots which cannot function as words on their own; in combination with affixes they are used to describe relationships of position and location. Particles are words that do not take affixes; they mostly function in adverbial roles, and include such things as

interrogative particle An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as ''what, which'', ''when'', ''where'', '' who, whom, whose'', ''why'', ''whether'' and ''how''. They are sometimes called wh-words, because in English most o ...

s, affirmative/negative words, markers of time and location, conjunctions,

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

s and

demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...

s. Locatives are often formed by placing a noun after a possessed body-part term: ''s-ti bʼe'', 'edge of the road' < 'its-mouth road' and ''s-jolom witz'', 'mountaintop' or 'summit' < 'its-head mountain'. Similarly, compound nouns may be formed by placing a noun after another possessed noun: ''y-atutal kuyoj'', 'school' < 'its-house studying'.

Numbers

* 1. jun * 2. kabʼ * 3. oxebʼ * 4. kanebʼ * 5. oyebʼ * 6. waqebʼ * 7. uqebʼ * 8. waxaqebʼ * 9. bʼalonebʼ * 10. lajonebʼ * 11. uslukʼebʼ * 12. kabʼlajonebʼ * 13. oxlajonebʼ * 14. kanlajonebʼ * 15. holajonebʼ * 16. waqlajonebʼ * 17. uqlajonebʼ * 18. waxaqlajonebʼ * 19. balonlajonebʼ * 20. junkʼal * 21. jun skakʼal * 22. kabʼ skakʼal * 23. oxebʼ skakʼal * 24. kanebʼ skakʼal * 25. oyeb skakʼal * 26. waqebʼ skakʼal * 27. uqebʼ skakʼal * 28. waxaqebʼ skakʼal * 29. bʼalonebʼ skakʼal * 30. lajonebʼ skakʼal * 31. uslukʼebʼ skakʼal * 32. kabʼlajonebʼ skakʼal * 33. oxlajunebʼ skakʼal * 34. kanlajonebʼ skakʼal * 35. holajonebʼ skakʼal * 36. waqlajonebʼ skakʼal * 37. uqlajonebʼ skakʼal * 38. waxaqlajonebʼ skakʼal * 39. balonlajunebʼ skakʼal * 40. kakʼal * 60. oxkʼal ''3x20'' * 80. kankʼal * 100. okʼal * 120. waqkʼal * 140. uqkʼal * 160. waxaqkʼal * 180. balonlajonkʼal * 200. lajunkʼal * 400. junkʼalwinaq * 800. kakʼalwinaq * 2000. okʼalwinaq

Common words

Abbreviations used

ABS abstractivizer
CL classifier
COM complete
INC incomplete
INT interrogative
IRR irrealis
NEG negative
NZR nominalizer
PL plural
PROG progressive
SFX suffix
STAT status

Notes

References

* * * *Lichtman, Karen (2010)
''IPA illustration of Q’anjob’al''
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. *Mateo Pedro, Pedro (2010). ''The acquisition of verb inflection in Qʼanjobʼal Maya: a longitudinal study''. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas. *

External links

community/sub-committee for Qʼanjobʼal at Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala LMG* ELAR archive o
Qʼanjobʼal (Maya)
{{Mayan languages Agglutinative languages Languages of Guatemala Huehuetenango Department Mayan languages Mesoamerican languages Articles citing INALI Verb–object–subject languages