| West Central Quiché | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K'iche' | ||||
| Pronunciation | /kʼit͡ʃeʔ/ | |||
| Spoken in | Guatemala | |||
| Region | Central highlands | |||
| Native speakers | 250,000 (date missing) | |||
| Language family |
Mayan
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | qut | |||
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West Central K'iche' (or Quiché) is a Mayan language spoken by approximately 250,000 people in the western highlands of Guatemala. It is sometimes considered a dialect of a larger K'iche' language, as the many form are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. The Quichean languages are the most widely-spoken indigenous language group in Guatemala, with approximately one million native speakers.
Contents |
A table of the phoneme inventory of West Central K'iche' is provided below, as transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Selected allophones have been included in parentheses.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | a |
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain stops | p | t | k | q | ||||
| Glottalized stops | ɓ | tʼ | kʼ | qʼ | ʔ | |||
| Plain affricates | ts | tʃ | ||||||
| Glottalized affricates | tsʼ | tʃʼ | ||||||
| Taps | (ɾ) | |||||||
| Voiceless fricatives | (ʍ) | s, (ɬ) | ʃ | (ʂ) | (ç) | (ʍ) | χ | |
| Nasals | m | n | (ŋ) | |||||
| Approximants | w | l | ɻ | j | w |
Like other Quichean languages, West Central K'iche' has both plain voiceless stops and affricates p /p/, t /t/, tz /ts/, ch /tʃ/, k /k/, and q /q/ and their glottalized counterparts b’ /ɓ/, t’ /t’/, tz’ /ts’/, ch’ /tʃ’/, k’ /k’/, and q’ /q’/. The glottalized bilabial stop is realized as a weak implosive, while the other glottalized consonants are realized as ejectives. The plain stops and affricates are typically aspirated, while their glottalized counterparts are not.
West Central K'iche' has only voiceless fricatives and voiced approximants phonemically, with the exception of some marginal phonemes used only in borrowings from Spanish. Word-finally and often before voiceless consonants, the approximants l /l/, r /ɻ/, y /j/, and w /w/ devoice and fricate to [ɬ], [ʂ], [ç], and [ʍ], respectively. There are only two phonemic nasals in the language, m /m/ and n /n/. All approximants and nasals can be realized as syllabic.
There are six phonemic vowels in the language, i /i/, e /e/, a /a/, o /o/, u /u/, and ä /ə/. Vowel length is not contrastive in this language, unlike other Quichean languages. Vowels typically undergo syncope in penultimate syllables, allowing for a wide array of complex onsets.
Complex onsets are very common in West Central K'iche', 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. Diphthongs are largely absent from the phonology, except in some recent loanwords.
Nouns are not inflected for case; their role in the sentence is understood using word order and intonation. Nouns are, however, marked when possessed by another nominal.
West Central K'iche' 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 orthography | In IPA | |
| First person singular | in | /in/ |
| Second person singular | at | /at/ |
| Third person singular | are' | /aɾeʔ/ |
| First person plural | uj | /uχ/ |
| Second person plural | ix | /iʃ/ |
| Third person plural | iyare' | /ijaɾeʔ/ |
Verbs are highly morphologically complex, and can take numerous prefixes and suffixes serving both inflectional and derivational purposes. Verbs are inflected to agree with the subject and object. As with other Mayan languages, agreement with intransitive subjects and transitive objects is marked on the verb with the corresponding absolutive marker, while agreement with the transitive subject is marked on the verb with the corresponding ergative marker. The ergative and absolutive markers are shown in the table below. When two forms are given for the ergative marker, the first form occurs preconsonantally and the second for occurs prevocalically.
| Ergative Proclitic |
Absolutive Prefix |
|
|---|---|---|
| First person singular |
n- w- |
n- |
| Second person singular |
a- aw- |
at- |
| Third person singular |
u- ɻ- |
Ø- |
| First person plural |
q- | uχ- |
| Second person plural |
i- iw- |
iʃ- |
| Third person plural |
ki- k- |
e(ɓ)- |
As with all Mayan languages, West Central K'iche' has an ergative pattern of verb agreement, and often uses VSO 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 (an SVO language) promotes a subject-initial order.