Kaqchikel language
Encyclopedia
The Kaqchikel, or Kaqchiquel, language (in modern orthography; formerly also spelled Cakchiquel or Cakchiquiel) is an indigenous Mesoamerican language
and a member of the Quichean–Mamean branch of the Mayan languages
family
. It is spoken by the indigenous
Kaqchikel people in central Guatemala
. It is closely related to the K'iche'
(Quiché) and Tz'utujil language
s.
Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet
appears in brackets.
s.
Each dialect has a set of five tense
vowels and either one, two, four, or five lax vowels.
The chart below shows all the possible vowels that can occur in dialects of Kaqchikel. While the dialect of Sololá
uses the maximal, ten-vowel system with all the vowels except schwa
/ə/, the dialects of San Juan Sacatepéquez
and San Andrés Semetabaj
only use the five tense vowels and schwa.
Because the high tense central vowel and the schwa never occur in the same dialect, the same symbol is used to denote them in the ALMG standardized orthography.
and voiceless stops
and affricates
but instead distinguishes plain and glottalized
stops and affricates.
The plain stops and affricates (technically "pulmonic egressive") are usually voiceless and are aspirated
at the ends of words and unaspirated elsewhere.
The glottalized stops and affricates are usually ejective
in the case of t' , k' , ch' , and tz' and implosive
in the case of b' and q' .
} viewpoint is realized as [tsʼetʰɓɨl]
} knapsack is realized as [popʰ]
} dad is realized as [tatʰ]
} squirrel is realized as [kukʰ]
} horse is realized as [kʲeχ]
} sweet is realized as [kʲiʔ]
} stingy is realized as [kʼʲekʼ]
} straw is realized as [kʼʲim]
} bone realized as [ɓaqx]
} person realized as [vinɨqx]
} your hand is realized as [ʔaʠaʔ]
} yesterday is realized as [ʔiwir]
s, a sonorant and a stop, or a fricative and a stop
, with the stop always to the inside of its partner.
with fusional
affixes. It has a strong system of affix
ation, including both suffixes and prefixes. These attach to both nouns and verbs; prefixes are exclusively inflective
, whereas suffixes can be inflective or derivational. Inflective prefixes are quite short, often composed of a single sound and never consisting of more than three; suffixes can be longer than this. Because of the synthetic-fusional nature of Kaqchikel, it is difficult to discuss the language's morphology
and syntax
as two separate entities; they are very robustly intertwined.
. This affects both nouns and verbs. The functions of the ergative agreement
include marking not only subjects of transitive verb
s, but also possessors of nouns. There are two main sets of allomorphs for the ergative agreement markers, which are prefixed to the noun or verb they modify. One set is used before roots beginning in a consonant, and the other before those beginning with a vowel. These forms below are found when the ergative marks the possessor of nouns.
Before a consonant, these forms occur:
And before a vowel, these are found:
When the ergative forms are being used to denote the subject of a transitive verb, some of the forms differ. Before consonants, first person singular nu- becomes in- and third person singular ru- becomes u-. Before vowels, first person singular w- becomes inw-, third person singular u- becomes ur-, first person plural qa- becomes w-, and third person plural ki- becomes kiw-.
The third person singular of the ergative is variable in its phonology, and the initial /r/ is often omitted, with variability among the different dialects of Kaqchikel.
Absolutive agreement has three functions: its marks the subject of an intransitive verb
, the subject of a non-verbal predicate, and the object of a transitive verb. Unlike ergative agreement, it has only one set of forms, which are used before both consonants and vowels.
Note that the third person singular is unmarked. In some dialects, an epenthetic vowel
is inserted between a marker of the incompletive or potential states and the base, in the space which would be occupied by the absolutive prefix. However, this is not an allophone of the absolutive third person singular marker, but rather a phonetic addition which is not related to the case marking system.
Also, it is important to note that marking of subjects and objects occurs only on the verb, not on any nouns which may fill those roles as constituents. Agreement can take the place of pronouns, thus the language has pro-drop.
com-3sE-break-tr the man the pot
‘The man broke the pot’
3sErg-dog cl Juan com-3sErg-bite the child
‘Juan’s dog bit the child.’
exist a mouse behind:3sErg the chair
‘ There is a mouse behind the chair.’
cl Juan com-3sErg-eat 3sErg-all the bean
‘Juan ate all the beans.’
Sentences show considerable variability in their word order. The syntactic function of words is determined not only by their position at the beginning, middle or end of a sentence, but also by their definiteness
, level of animation and potency, and a logical analysis of what role each word can play in the sentence. (For example, the verb to throw with the nouns child and stone can only have one logical ordering, regardless of the position of the nouns with respect to the verb. For this reason, an inanimate constituent
cannot be the subject if the other constituent is animate.). Due to these conditions, Kaqchikel word order is relatively free and various orderings can be seen without there being any confusion or lack of understanding.
Possible word order
s that can occur in Kaqchikel are verb-first orders (VSO, VOS) and subject-first orders (SVO, SOV). (V: verb, S: subject, O: object)
Other constituents of a sentence, such as dative, comitative, agentive, and adverbial phrases, tend to come first in the sentence. However, they can also come after the nucleus of the sentence, the predicate
.
.
In Joseph Greenberg
's Amerind
hypothesis, Kaqchikel is classified as a member of the Penutian stock, in the Mayan branch of the Mexican family within that stock. However, this hypothesis has been largely discounted by modern linguists.
Greenberg's hypothesis has received significant amounts of negative criticism from many important linguists ever since it was first published in 1987. In Greenberg's etymological dictionary of Amerind, Kaqchikel words are found in 5 entries. Four of the entries are unremarkable; but the fifth uses two words, a-ĉin and iŝ-tan, as examples of a protophoneme *t'ina / t'ana / t'una, meaning "son/child/daughter" despite the fact that a-ĉin was already used in the dictionary to mean "elder". This is an example of a commonly-cited flaw in the work, which is that Greenberg reaches too far in search of evidence. In general, the documentation of Kaqchikel in the Amerind etymological dictionary serves to highlight the problems with the hypothesis more than it helps Greenberg's cause.
2 ka'i'
3 oxi'
4 kaji'
5 wo'o'
6 waqi'
7 wuqu'
8 waqxaqi'
9 b'eleje'
10 lajuj
11 julajuj
12 kab'lajuj
13 oxlajuj
14 kajlajuj
15 wolajuj
16 waqlajuj
17 wuqlajuj
18 waqxaqlajuj
19 b'elejlajuj
20 juk'al
achin, man
ixöq, woman
ixim, corn
kotz'i'j, flower
q'ïj, sun/day
ak'wal, child
te'ej, mother
tata'aj, father
wäy, tortilla
mes, cat
tz'i, dog
ulew, earth/land
ch'umil, star
juyu, mountain
che, tree
ik, moon/month
tlinche, marimba
ya, water
jay, house
Mesoamerican languages
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and...
and a member of the Quichean–Mamean branch of the Mayan languages
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
. It is spoken by the indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Kaqchikel people in central Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. It is closely related to the K'iche'
K'iche' language
The K’iche’ language is a part of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by many K'iche' people in the central highlands of Guatemala. With close to a million speakers , it is the second-most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish...
(Quiché) and Tz'utujil language
Tz'utujil language
Tz'utujil is a Mayan language spoken by the Tz'utujil people in the region to the south of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Tz'utujil is closely related to its larger neighbors, Kaqchikel and K'iche'....
s.
Phonology
In the charts below, each of the Kaqchikel phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the standard orthography developed by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG) and sanctioned by the Guatemalan government.Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
appears in brackets.
Vowels
Kaqchikel dialects differ somewhat in their vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s.
Each dialect has a set of five tense
Tenseness
In phonology, tenseness is a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. It has also occasionally been used to describe contrasts in consonants. Unlike most distinctive features, the feature [tense] can be interpreted only relatively, that is, in...
vowels and either one, two, four, or five lax vowels.
The chart below shows all the possible vowels that can occur in dialects of Kaqchikel. While the dialect of Sololá
Sololá
Sololá is a city in Guatemala. It is the capital of the department of Sololá and the administrative seat of Sololá municipality.The name is a hispanicized form of its pre-Columbian name, one spelling variant of which is T'zolojy'a...
uses the maximal, ten-vowel system with all the vowels except schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
/ə/, the dialects of San Juan Sacatepéquez
San Juan Sacatepéquez
San Juan Sacatepéquez is a municipality in the Guatemala department of Guatemala, northwest of Guatemala City. According to the 2002 census, it had a population of 81,584. The city is known for flower-growing and wooden furniture.-See also:*Chajoma...
and San Andrés Semetabaj
San Andrés Semetabaj
San Andrés Semetabaj is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala....
only use the five tense vowels and schwa.
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High (close) | Tense | i | ä ɨ* | u |
| Lax | ï ɪ | ü ʊ | ||
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
Tense | e | ä ə* | o |
| Lax | ë ɛ | ö ɔ | ||
| Low (open) | Tense | a |
Because the high tense central vowel and the schwa never occur in the same dialect, the same symbol is used to denote them in the ALMG standardized orthography.
Consonants
Like other Mayan languages, Kaqchikel does not distinguish voicedVoice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
and voiceless stops
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
and affricates
Affricate consonant
Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
but instead distinguishes plain and glottalized
Glottalic consonant
A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution of the glottis ....
stops and affricates.
The plain stops and affricates (technically "pulmonic egressive") are usually voiceless and are aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
at the ends of words and unaspirated elsewhere.
The glottalized stops and affricates are usually ejective
Ejective consonant
In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...
in the case of t' , k' , ch' , and tz' and implosive
Implosive consonant
Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
in the case of b' and q' .
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | glottalized | plain | ||
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... s |
p | b' ɓ | t | t' Alveolar ejective The alveolar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .-Features:Features of the aveolar ejective:-Occurrence:... |
ki kʲ | k'i kʼʲ | k | k' Velar ejective The velar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is kʼ.-Features:Features of the velar ejective:-Occurs in:... |
q | q' ʠ | ' ʔ | |
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... s |
b~w β | tz ts | tz' [tsʼ] | ch tʃ | ch' [tʃʼ] | |||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... s |
p~w f | b~w [v] | s Voiceless alveolar fricative The voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in spoken languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as . It has a characteristic high-pitched, highly perceptible hissing sound... |
x ʃ | j χ | |||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... s |
m Bilabial nasal The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m... |
n Alveolar nasal The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n.... |
||||||||||
| Liquid Liquid consonant In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:... s |
l r ɾ | |||||||||||
| Glide Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... s |
y j | w~ʍ | ||||||||||
Allophones and phonological processes
Several of the consonants in Kaqchikel have variant forms that occur in certain positions within a word.- The plain stopsStop consonantIn phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
/p t k/ are aspiratedAspiration (phonetics)In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
internally before the prefix -b'äl and in word-final position.- Examples:
} viewpoint is realized as [tsʼetʰɓɨl]
} knapsack is realized as [popʰ]
} dad is realized as [tatʰ]
} squirrel is realized as [kukʰ]
- Before /e/ and /i/, /k/ is palatalizedPalatalizationIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
to become [kʲ]. In the same position, the ejective /kʼ/ palatalizes to become [kʼʲ].- Examples:
} horse is realized as [kʲeχ]
} sweet is realized as [kʲiʔ]
} stingy is realized as [kʼʲekʼ]
} straw is realized as [kʼʲim]
- The voiceless uvular stop has an affricated release in final position. It is realized as the affricate [qx] in this position only, and is not contrastive.
- Examples:
} bone realized as [ɓaqx]
} person realized as [vinɨqx]
- The glottal stopGlottal stopThe glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
/ʔ/ plays an important role in Kaqchikel; since words may not begin with a vowel and diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s do not exist in the language, this consonant often serves to separate vowels, and is found at the beginning of words that would otherwise begin with a vowel. It can also occur syllable- and word-finally.- Examples:
} your hand is realized as [ʔaʠaʔ]
} yesterday is realized as [ʔiwir]
- The implosive consonantImplosive consonantImplosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
s in Kaqchikel are usually voiceless, which is unusual for implosives.- The voiceless bilabial ejectiveBilabial ejectiveThe bilabial ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is pʼ.-Features:Features of the bilabial ejective:-Occurrence:...
[pʼ] is an allophone of the bilabial implosive [ɓ]; there is free variation between the two in word-final position. Elsewhere, only [pʼ] is found. For example, the word sɪɓ/ "smoke" can be realized as [sɪɓ] or [sɪpʼ] with no change in meaning; but /ɓaqx/ bone can never be realized as [pʼaqx] because the implosive occurs word-initially rather than word-finally. - The uvular implosive [ʠ] and its allophone, the voiceless uvular ejectiveUvular ejectiveThe uvular ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .-Features:Features of the uvular ejective:-Occurrence:One ejective...
[qʼ], experience free variation in the same position. For example, /aʠ/tongue can be realized as [ʔaʠ] or [ʔaqʼ]; but /ʠiχ/ can only ever be realized as [ʠiχ] because the implosive occurs word-initially.
- The voiceless bilabial ejective
- The sonorants /l ɾ j/ are devoiced in word-final position and before another consonant.
- The distribution of the phoneme represented by the letter w is quite varied across Kaqchikel dialects. It has a total of seven allophoneAllophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
s: /β x pʰ f v ʍ w/. The labiovelar approximant /w/ is the historical standard pronunciation, and this spelling has been maintained in order to have a single standard for all the various dialects of Kaqchikel. There is too much variation to list here, but these are some generalizations:- At the beginning of a word, /w/ can be realized in speech as [β] (only before back vowels /o u/), as [v] (only before front vowels /e i/), or another vowel which is itself followed by a uvular), or as just [w] (before any vowel), depending on the dialect. [v ~ w] can also occur internally in the same vowel environments.
- Examples:
- At the beginning of a word, /w/ can be realized in speech as [β] (only before back vowels /o u/), as [v] (only before front vowels /e i/), or another vowel which is itself followed by a uvular), or as just [w] (before any vowel), depending on the dialect. [v ~ w] can also occur internally in the same vowel environments.
- } bumblebee can be realized as [βonon] or [wonon]
-
-
- wïy /wɨj/ tortilla can be realized as [vɨj] or [wɨj]
-
-
- } seven can be realized as [βuquʔ] or [vuquʔ] or [wuquʔ]
- } yesterday can be realized as [ʔivir] or [ʔiwir]
- At the end of a word, the /w/ phoneme can be realized in one of four ways: [pʰ f ʍ] can be found in all environments, and [x] can occur after /o u/, depending on the dialect.
- Examples:
- At the end of a word, the /w/ phoneme can be realized in one of four ways: [pʰ f ʍ] can be found in all environments, and [x] can occur after /o u/, depending on the dialect.
- } cold can be realized as [tepʰ], [tef] or [teʍ].
- } hard can be realized as [kopʰ], [kof], [koʍ] or [kox].
Syllable structure
Kaqchikel has several constraints on syllable structure. The most common syllable types are CV (consonant-vowel) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant). V (vowel only) or VC (vowel-consonant) syllables are not allowed phonetically; a syllable that is conceived of as beginning with a vowel will begin in pronunciation with a glottal stop, although this is not always reflected in standard orthography or in the phonological realization of a word. While two CVC syllables often occur next to each other in the same word, true consonant clusters are relatively uncommon. When these do occur they are normally at word boundaries and consist of either two continuantContinuant
A continuant is a sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract. That is, any sound except a stop or nasal. An affricate is considered to be a complex segment, composed of both a stop and a continuant.-See also:...
s, a sonorant and a stop, or a fricative and a stop
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
, with the stop always to the inside of its partner.
Morphology and syntax
Kaqchikel is a moderately synthetic languageSynthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
with fusional
Fusional language
A fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to overlay many morphemes in a way that can be difficult to segment....
affixes. It has a strong system of affix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
ation, including both suffixes and prefixes. These attach to both nouns and verbs; prefixes are exclusively inflective
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
, whereas suffixes can be inflective or derivational. Inflective prefixes are quite short, often composed of a single sound and never consisting of more than three; suffixes can be longer than this. Because of the synthetic-fusional nature of Kaqchikel, it is difficult to discuss the language's morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
as two separate entities; they are very robustly intertwined.
Word classes
Kaqchikel has 6 major word classes and several minor classes, referred to collectively as "particles." The major word classes are groups of bases or roots that can take affixes. These classes are nouns, adjectives, adverbs, intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and positionals. Positionals in this language are a group of roots which cannot function as words on their own; in combination with affixes they are used to describe relationships of position and location. In English, these words would fall into other categories, namely adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, both transitive and intransitive. The minor classes or particles are words that do not take affixes; they mostly function in adverbial roles, and include such things as interrogative particles, affirmative/negative words, markers of time and location, conjunctions, prepositions and demonstratives. In addition to these officially recognized classes, there are a few other groups of words which do not fall neatly into any of the above categories. These groups are articles, pronouns, numbers, affectives, and words used for measurement. All of these types of words function differently in Kaqchikel, and so they are considered to belong to different word classes.Agreement
Kaqchikel shows agreement with the subject and object of a verb. Nouns also show agreement with their possessors. The agreement pattern of Kaqchikel follows an ergative-absolutive patternErgative-absolutive language
An ergative–absolutive language is a language that treats the argument of an intransitive verb like the object of a transitive verb, but differently from the agent of a transitive verb.-Ergative vs...
. This affects both nouns and verbs. The functions of the ergative agreement
Ergative case
The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.-Characteristics:...
include marking not only subjects of transitive verb
Transitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
s, but also possessors of nouns. There are two main sets of allomorphs for the ergative agreement markers, which are prefixed to the noun or verb they modify. One set is used before roots beginning in a consonant, and the other before those beginning with a vowel. These forms below are found when the ergative marks the possessor of nouns.
Before a consonant, these forms occur:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | nu- | qa- |
| 2nd person | a- | i- |
| 3rd person | ru- | ki- |
And before a vowel, these are found:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | w- | q- |
| 2nd person | aw- | iw- |
| 3rd person | r- | k- |
When the ergative forms are being used to denote the subject of a transitive verb, some of the forms differ. Before consonants, first person singular nu- becomes in- and third person singular ru- becomes u-. Before vowels, first person singular w- becomes inw-, third person singular u- becomes ur-, first person plural qa- becomes w-, and third person plural ki- becomes kiw-.
The third person singular of the ergative is variable in its phonology, and the initial /r/ is often omitted, with variability among the different dialects of Kaqchikel.
Absolutive agreement has three functions: its marks the subject of an intransitive verb
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
, the subject of a non-verbal predicate, and the object of a transitive verb. Unlike ergative agreement, it has only one set of forms, which are used before both consonants and vowels.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | in- | oj- |
| 2nd person | at- | ix- |
| 3rd person | - | e- |
Note that the third person singular is unmarked. In some dialects, an epenthetic vowel
Epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
is inserted between a marker of the incompletive or potential states and the base, in the space which would be occupied by the absolutive prefix. However, this is not an allophone of the absolutive third person singular marker, but rather a phonetic addition which is not related to the case marking system.
Also, it is important to note that marking of subjects and objects occurs only on the verb, not on any nouns which may fill those roles as constituents. Agreement can take the place of pronouns, thus the language has pro-drop.
Word order
Kaqchikel has a word order in which the head of a phrase usually comes before any other element of the phrase. The following sentences show examples of the order of sentences, determiner phrases (DP), noun phrases (NP), prepositional phrases (PP), and quantifier phrases (QP):- 1) X-u-pax-ij ri achin ri b’ojoy
com-3sE-break-tr the man the pot
‘The man broke the pot’
- 2) [DP Ru-tz’e’ [NP a Xwan] x-u-k’ux ri ak’wal.
3sErg-dog cl Juan com-3sErg-bite the child
‘Juan’s dog bit the child.’
- 3) K’o jun ch’oy [PP chrij ri chak’at].
exist a mouse behind:3sErg the chair
‘ There is a mouse behind the chair.’
- 4) A Xwan x-u-tij [QP r-onojel ri kinäq].
cl Juan com-3sErg-eat 3sErg-all the bean
‘Juan ate all the beans.’
Sentences show considerable variability in their word order. The syntactic function of words is determined not only by their position at the beginning, middle or end of a sentence, but also by their definiteness
Definiteness
In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
, level of animation and potency, and a logical analysis of what role each word can play in the sentence. (For example, the verb to throw with the nouns child and stone can only have one logical ordering, regardless of the position of the nouns with respect to the verb. For this reason, an inanimate constituent
Constituent (linguistics)
In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down...
cannot be the subject if the other constituent is animate.). Due to these conditions, Kaqchikel word order is relatively free and various orderings can be seen without there being any confusion or lack of understanding.
Possible word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
s that can occur in Kaqchikel are verb-first orders (VSO, VOS) and subject-first orders (SVO, SOV). (V: verb, S: subject, O: object)
- Verb-first orders (VSO, VOS). When the verb occurs first and only one constituent is definte, then that constituent functions as the subject. If both constituents are definite, then the one closest to the verb (the first constituent) is the subject; if both constituents are indefinite, then the subject is the latter of the two.
- Subject-first orders (SVO, SOV). The subject can come first only if it is animate and the object is not. In this case, the definiteness of the two constituents does not matter; that is to say, the subject can be either definite or indefinite, so long as it is animate and occurs first. The order of the verb and object is unimportant.
Other constituents of a sentence, such as dative, comitative, agentive, and adverbial phrases, tend to come first in the sentence. However, they can also come after the nucleus of the sentence, the predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
.
Reduplication
An interesting morphological process occurs in Kaqchikel to make up for the lack of a word meaning very. For example, the Kaqchikel word for large is /nim/; to say that something is very large, the adjectival form is reduplicated as /nim nim/. This form is not a single word but two separate words which, when combined, add the meaning of very to the reduplicated adjective.Linguistic Relations
Kaqchikel is a member of the Mayan language familyMayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
.
In Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
's Amerind
Amerind languages
Amerind is a higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language families, the previously established Eskimo–Aleut and Na–Dene, and with everything else—almost universally believed...
hypothesis, Kaqchikel is classified as a member of the Penutian stock, in the Mayan branch of the Mexican family within that stock. However, this hypothesis has been largely discounted by modern linguists.
Greenberg's hypothesis has received significant amounts of negative criticism from many important linguists ever since it was first published in 1987. In Greenberg's etymological dictionary of Amerind, Kaqchikel words are found in 5 entries. Four of the entries are unremarkable; but the fifth uses two words, a-ĉin and iŝ-tan, as examples of a protophoneme *t'ina / t'ana / t'una, meaning "son/child/daughter" despite the fact that a-ĉin was already used in the dictionary to mean "elder". This is an example of a commonly-cited flaw in the work, which is that Greenberg reaches too far in search of evidence. In general, the documentation of Kaqchikel in the Amerind etymological dictionary serves to highlight the problems with the hypothesis more than it helps Greenberg's cause.
Numbers
1 jun2 ka'i'
3 oxi'
4 kaji'
5 wo'o'
6 waqi'
7 wuqu'
8 waqxaqi'
9 b'eleje'
10 lajuj
11 julajuj
12 kab'lajuj
13 oxlajuj
14 kajlajuj
15 wolajuj
16 waqlajuj
17 wuqlajuj
18 waqxaqlajuj
19 b'elejlajuj
20 juk'al
Common words
winaq, personachin, man
ixöq, woman
ixim, corn
kotz'i'j, flower
q'ïj, sun/day
ak'wal, child
te'ej, mother
tata'aj, father
wäy, tortilla
mes, cat
tz'i, dog
ulew, earth/land
ch'umil, star
juyu, mountain
che, tree
ik, moon/month
tlinche, marimba
ya, water
jay, house
External links
- Kaqchikel language family tree, per EthnologueEthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
- University of Kansas Kaqchikel Mayan Resource Center
- "The Semantic Value of the -a' and the -i' Noun Plurals in Cakchiquel," by Larry L. RichmanLarry L. RichmanLarry Richman is a social media expert, Internet strategist, publishing executive, trainer on project management, and of over a dozen books, numerous book translations, and articles in professional journals and magazines. Syndicated columnist...
in Notes on LinguisticsNotes on LinguisticsNotes on Linguistics was "a quarterly publication of the International Linguistics Department of the Summer Institute of Linguistics."It originated as a subscription journal, from 1975 through 2001, intended to share practical, theoretical, and even administrative information...
, Summer Institute of Linguistics, vol. 13, January 1980