Kʼicheʼ language


Kʼicheʼ, or Quiché, is a Maya language of Guatemala, spoken by the Kʼicheʼ people of the central highlands. With over a million speakers, Kʼicheʼ is the second-most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish.
The Central dialect is the most commonly used in the media and education. The literacy rate is low, but Kʼicheʼ is increasingly taught in schools and used on radio. The most famous work in the Classical Kʼicheʼ language is the Popol Vuh.

Dialects

Kaufman divides the Kʼicheʼ complex into the following five dialects, with the representative municipalities given as well.
;East
;West
;Central
;North
;South
The Nahualá dialect of Kʼicheʼ shows some differences from other Kʼicheʼ dialects. It preserves an ancient Proto-Mayan distinction between five long vowels and five short vowels. It is for that conservative linguistic feature that Guatemalan and foreign linguists have actively sought to have the language called Kʼichee rather than Kʼicheʼ or Quiché.

Phonology

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 or elided altogether, often producing consonant clusters even at the beginnings of words. 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 retain the ten-vowel system. Others have reduced it to a six-vowel system with no length distinctions: short /a/ has become /ə/ 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 Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. The table below shows the two vowel systems, and several of the spelling systems that have been proposed.
Vowels typically undergo syncope in syllables, allowing for a wide array of complex onsets. Diphthongs are found in recent loanwords.

Consonants

Kʼicheʼ has both pulmonic stops and affricates, p /p/, t /t/, tz /ts/, ch /tʃ/, k /k/, and q /q/, and glottalized counterparts bʼ /ɓ/, tʼ /tʼ/, tzʼ /tsʼ/, chʼ /tʃʼ/, kʼ /kʼ/, and qʼ /qʼ/. The glottalized /ɓ/ is a weak implosive, while the other glottalized consonants are ejectives. The pulmonic stops and affricates are typically aspirated.
BilabialAlveolarPost-
alveolar		PalatalVelarUvularGlottal
Nasalsm n
Glottalized plosivebʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
Aspirated plosivep t k q ʼ
Glottalized affricatetzʼ chʼ
Aspirated affricatetz ch
Fricatives x j h
Approximantw l y
Rhoticr

In West Quiche, the approximants l /l/, r /r/, y /j/, and w /w/ devoice and fricate to word-finally and often before voiceless consonants. In the dialect of Santa María Chiquimula, 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 due to the active process of penultimate syncope. Complex codas are rare, except when the first member of the complex coda is a phonemic glottal stop, written with an apostrophe. The sonorants /m, n, l, r/ may be syllabic.

Orthography

Historically, different orthographies have been used to transliterate the Kʼicheʼ languages. The classic orthography of Father Ximénez who wrote down the Popol Vuh is based on the Spanish orthography and has been replaced by a new standardized orthography defined by the ALMG. Ethnohistorian and Mayanist Dennis Tedlock uses his own transliteration system which is completely different from any of the established orthographies, but this system will not be given here.
Ximénez's classical orthographyAre v xe oher tzíh varal Quíche ubí.
ALMG orthographyAreʼ uxeʼ ojer tzij waral Kʼicheʼ ubʼiʼ.
Este es el principio de las Antiguas historias aquí en el Quiché.
"This is the beginning of the ancient word, here in the place called Quiché."

Morphology

Like other Mayan languages, 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. "Set B" markers are used on verbs to agree with the transitive object or the intransitive subject.
Before a consonantBefore a vowel
First person singularnu- or in-w- or inw-
Second person singulara-aw-
Third person singularu-r-
First person pluralqa-q-
Second person plurali-iw-
Third person pluralki-k-

Pronouns

Kʼicheʼ distinguishes six pronouns, classified by person and number. Gender and case are not marked on pronouns. Pronouns are often omitted, as subject and object agreement are obligatorily marked on the verb.
In orthographyIn IPA
First person singularin
Second person singularat
Third person singularareʼ
First person pluraluj
Second person pluralix
Third person pluraliyareʼ

Verbs

Verbs are highly morphologically complex, and can take numerous prefixes and suffixes serving both inflectional and derivational purposes.
The table below shows the inflectional template of a Kʼicheʼ verb. Agreement follows an ergative/absolutive pattern. Subjects of transitive verbs are indexed using Set A markers. Intransitive subjects and transitive objects are indexed using Set B markers. Aspect and mood are also indicated, as is movement: the prefix ul- in the movement slot indicates movement towards the speaker, while the prefix e- indicates movement away.
Aspect/moodSet B MovementSet A StemStatus suffix
k-at-bʼin-ikkatbʼinik "You walk."
x-at-inw-il-oxatinwilo "I saw you."
ch-Ø-a-kʼam-aʼ chakʼamaʼ "Carry it!"
k-Ø-ul-waʼ-oqkulwaʼoq "S/he comes and eats."

The last morpheme on a verb, the so-called "status suffix", is a portmanteau morph whose form determined by a rather complicated set of rules.
Relevant factors include:
The examples above involve verbs with simple stems. Verb stems may also be morphologically complex. Complex stems may involve voice suffixes
or derivational suffixes, 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 ", -nim-ar-isa-x- "be enlarged."

Syntax

As with all Mayan languages, Kʼicheʼ has an ergative pattern of verb agreement, and often uses verb-object-subject 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, while influence from Spanish promotes a subject-initial order.

Babytalk

Contrary to the way many other languages use high pitch in child directed speech, Kʼicheʼ babytalk has been shown not to use high pitch. Mayans in fact lower their pitch slightly when they speak to children, due to the fact that in the Quiche Mayan culture high pitch is very often used to address persons of high status.