Kʼicheʼ language
Mayan language spoken by the K'iche' people
Kʼicheʼ ( kee-CHAY; natively [kʼiˈtʃʰeʔ], also known as Qatzijobʼal lit. 'our language' among its speakers), or Quiché, is a Mayan language spoken by the Kʼicheʼ people of the central highlands in Guatemala and Mexico. With over a million speakers (some 7% of Guatemala's population), Kʼicheʼ is the second most widely-spoken language in the country, after Spanish. It is one of the most widely-spoken indigenous American languages in Mesoamerica.
The Central dialect is the most commonly used in media and education. Despite a low literacy rate, Kʼicheʼ is increasingly taught in schools and used on the radio. The most famous work in the Classical Kʼicheʼ language is the Popol Vuh (Popol Wuʼuj in modern spelling). The second most important work is The Title of Totonicapán.
Dialects
Kaufman (1970) divides the Kʼicheʼ complex into the following five dialects, with the representative municipalities given as well (quoted in Par Sapón 2000:17):
East
Guatemala:
Joyabaj
Zacualpa
Cubulco
Rabinal
San Miguel Chicaj
Mexico:
Las Margaritas
La Trinitaria
Marqués de Comillas
West
Guatemala:
Nahualá
Santa Clara La Laguna
Santa Lucía Utatlán
Aldea Argueta, Sololá
Cantel
Zunil
San José Chiquilajá, Quetzaltenango
Totonicapán
Momostenango
Central
Guatemala:
Santa María Chiquimula
San Antonio Ilotenango
Santa Cruz del Quiché
Chichicastenango
Mexico:
Marqués de Comillas
Campeche
Champotón
North
Guatemala:
Cunén
South
Guatemala:
Samayac
Mazatenango
The Nahualá dialect of Kʼicheʼ shows some differences from other Kʼicheʼ dialects. It preserves an ancient Proto-Mayan distinction between five long vowels (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) and five short vowels (a, e, i, o, u). 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.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kʼicheʼ language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.