Quiché language
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- For other uses, see Quiché (disambiguation).
{{Infobox Language |name=Quiché |nativename=K'iche' |pronunciation=/kʼiʧeʔ/ |states=Guatemala |region=Central highlands |speakers=approx. 1,000,000 |familycolor=American |fam1=Mayan |fam2=Quichean-Mamean |fam3=Greater Quichean |fam4=Quichean |fam5=Quiché-Achi |iso2=myn |lc1=quc|ld1=Central Quiché |lc2=cun|ld2=Cunén Quiché |lc3=quu|ld3=Eastern Quiché |lc4=quj|ld4=Joyabaj Quiché |lc5=qxi|ld5=San Andrés Quiché |lc6=qut|ld6=West Central Quiché}}
The Quiché language (k’iche’ in modern native orthography) is a part of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by many Quiché people in the central highlands of Guatemala. With close to a million speakers (some 7% of Guatemala's population), it is the second most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish. Most speakers of Quiché also have at least a working knowledge of Spanish except in some isolated rural villages.
There is substantial dialectal variation, and the main dialects are sometimes considered to be separate languages. Most speakers use Central Quiché, which is the most commonly used in the media and education. Other dialects include West Central Quiché, San Andrés Quiché, Joyabaj Quiché, Eastern Quiché, and Cunén Quiché. Although it has no official status in Guatemala and the first-language literacy rate is low, Quiché is increasingly taught in schools and used on radio.
The most famous work in the Quiché language is the Popol Vuh (Popol Wuj in modern spelling).
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Phonology and orthography
Template:IPA notice The spellings indicated below are (1) the k’iche’ orthography as standardized by the Guatemalan government, and (2) the transliteration system used by Dennis Tedlock in his translation of the Popol Vuh. Note that both differ subtantially from Father Ximénez's original spellings, as exemplified by the opening line of the Popol Vuh:
- ARE V XE OHER tzíh varal Quíche ubí. (Ximénez/Quiché)
- Are’ uxe’ ojer tzij waral K’iche’ ub’i’. (Colop/Quiché)
- ESTE ES EL PRINCÍPIO DE LAS antíguas hístorías aquí en el quiché. (Ximénez/Spanish)
- Esta es la raíz de la antigua palabra de este lugar llamado K’iche’. (Colop/Spanish)
- "THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE ANCIENT WORD, here in the place called Quiché." (Tedlock)
Syntax and morphology
Quiché uses subject-verb-object (SVO) order, unlike most Mayan languages, which are verb-initial. Variation in word order is not uncommon, and some modern speakers do also use VSO order.
References
- Munro S. Edmonson, Quiche-English Dictionary. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, publ. no. 30 (1965).
- James L. Mondloch, Basic Quiche Grammar. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, University at Albany, The State University of New York, publ. no. 2 (1978).
- Abraham García-Hernández, Santiago Yac Sam, and David Henne Pontius, Diccionario Quiché-Español. Instituto Linguistico de Verano, Guatemala (1980).
- Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Touchstone Books (1996). ISBN 0684818450.
- Sam Colop, Popol Wuj — Versión Poética K‘iche‘. PEMBI/GTZ/Cholsamaj, Guatemala (1999). (In the Quiché Maya language).