Q'eqchi' language

Infobox Language
name=Kekchi
nativename=Q'eqchi'
states=Guatemala, Belize
region=Alta Verapaz, Petén, Izabal, Baja Verapaz, El Quiché; Toledo
speakers=approx. 500,000
familycolor=American
fam1=Mayan
fam2=Quichean-Mamean
fam3=Greater Quichean
fam4=Kekchi
iso2=myn
iso3=kek

The Q'eqchi' language (sometimes written Kekchi) is one of the Mayan languages, natively spoken within Q'eqchi' communities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize. In Guatemala, Q'eqchi' is spoken in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Petén, Izabal, Baja Verapaz, and El Quiché. Several Maya communities in the Toledo District of Belize use this language as their first language, and the majority of Mayas in Toledo speak Q'eqchi'.

Q'eqchi' has traditionally been described as having two dialects — one spoken in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, and the surrounding areas; and an "eastern" dialect spoken everywhere else.

Orthographies

There are several orthographies for writing Q'eqchi', but only two are in widerspread use. One was developed by Summer Insitute of Linguistics (SIL) field researchers, principally Guillermo Sedat in the 1950s and Francis Eachus and Ruth Carlson in the 1960s. [ [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_author.asp?auth=2224 SIL bibliography for Eachus and Carlson] ] Though this orthography is no longer considered standard, it remains in circulation in large part due to the popularity of a few texts including the Protestant Bible produced by the SIL/Wycliffe Bible Translation Project, and a widely-used language learning workbook "Aprendamos Kekchi." A newer orthography was developed by the Proyecto Lingüistico Francisco Marroquin in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This orthograhy was later modified by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG), and is now considered the standard, official way to write Q'eqchi' (at least in Guatemala).

In the current orthography there are 33 graphemes (letters), each of which is meant to correspond to a particular phoneme. These include separate vowels for long and short sounds, as well as glottal stops accompanying certain consonants.

Texts

1) Educational texts meant to teach people how to speak, read or write Q'eqchi'. This category includes materials such as dictionaries and grammars, as well as workbooks designed to be used in rural Guatemala schools in communities where the majority of the people are native speakers of Q'eqchi'.

2) Religious texts. The Protestant version of the Bible (published by the SIL based on the work of Guillermo Sedat, and Eachus and Carlson) mentioned above is probably the most widely available text in Q'eqchi'. In the last twenty years or so, the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the primary proponents of written Q'eqchi'. Various Catholic organizations are responsible for producing a number of texts, including the New Testament, Genesis and Exodus, and various instructional pamphlets. A songbook entitled "Qanimaaq Xloq'al li Qaawa"' 'We praise the Lord' is very popular among Catholics, has been in print for many years, and is updated with new songs regularly. The "Book of Mormon" also is available in Q'eqchi' as are also other LDS religious texts. [Kai A. Andersen, [http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=f0109527730eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1 “‘In His Own Language’”] , "Liahona", June 1997, 29; see [http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=44286&langId=-1&cg1=13978&cg2=14001&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&sortId=3&sortOr=1&retURLtext=Back%20to%20'Language%20Materials%20Listings'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay%3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3BcategoryId%3D14001%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D13978%26amp%3Bcg2%3D%26amp%3Bcg3%3D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D5%26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1 available list] of Q'eqchi' LDS publications at ldscatalog.com.]

3) Non-instructive secular texts have also begun to appear in the last ten years or so, although they are few in number. The most ambitious of these works have been a free translation of the K'iche' text "Popol Wuj" ("Popol Vuh") by the Q'eqchi' language teacher and translator Rigoberto Baq Qaal (or Ba'q Q'aal), and a collection of Q'eqchi' folk tales. A number of government documents have also been translated into Q'eqchi', including the Guatemalan Constitution.

Notes

References

: cite book |author=aut|Kahn, Hilary E. |year=2006 |title=Seeing and Being Seen: The Q’eqchi’ Maya of Livingston, Guatemala, and Beyond |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-71348-2 |oclc=68965681: cite book |author=aut|Wilson, Richard |year=1995 |title=Maya Resurgence in Guatemala: Q’eqchi’ Experiences |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-2690-6 |oclc=31172908