Appendix D: Dialect variation cheat sheet
Kaqchikel is spoken in several dozen municipalities across central Guatemala, which dialectologists group into regional varieties. This book follows the central varieties of Tecpán (Iximche') and Comalapa (Chiq'a'l), which also anchor the written standard. The table lists the differences a learner is most likely to hear or read. Abbreviations: CM Comalapa, TEC Tecpán, SO Sololá, LA Lake Atitlán towns, SAC San Antonio Aguas Calientes.
| Feature | This book | Variants and where |
|---|---|---|
| ä, its quality | the "cup" vowel of English | every town keeps ä but colors it differently: CM like the e of "bet"; SAC the "cup" vowel; TEC high and far back with unrounded lips, a vowel English has no model for; Santa María de Jesús drifting, sometimes close to plain a |
| ë | distinct | fully distinct only in San José Poaquil; elsewhere replaced by e in suffixes and by ä in roots, so setël is heard with plain e or with the vowel of säq |
| w | English w | at the start of a word heard as w or v, and before u sometimes b (wuj as "buj"); at the end of a word it devoices everywhere, pushed to an f-like sound in some towns, and to p in San Antonio Palopó and Santa Catarina Palopó (kow as "kop") |
| Lax vowels (ä ë ï ö ü) | all five, final syllables only | some varieties have fewer lax vowels or none: most towns today keep only ä, ë survives mainly in Poaquil, and each of ï, ö, ü is missing in many communities (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 222); when a suffix tenses the vowel (tab'ana', rub'anon) all dialects agree |
| "because of" | -oma (roma, woma) | -uma (ruma, wuma) is the majority form in the dialect survey, used in TEC itself, Patzicía, San Lucas Tolimán and most other towns; roma is recorded for Santo Domingo Xenacoj and San Marcos la Laguna (LA); both spellings circulate in print and teaching materials, and the conversational sources this book follows write roma, as does the same authors' newer Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela' throughout |
| "with" | -ik'in (rik'in, wik'in) | -uk'in (ruk'in) in LA and older texts, and freely alongside rik'in in the authors' own newer prose |
| "now, today" | wakami | wakamïn (fuller form, the spelling the authors themselves now use), kami (south and west), wakamik, kamik (LA, under Tz'utujil and K'iche' influence) |
| 3s incompletive of short verbs | nel, nb'e, niwär | speech often inserts a dental stop: ndel, ntel, ndb'e; writing keeps n- |
| final m of possessed nouns | nutza'm, nupam, nutele'n | pronounced with n or ng in most towns (nutza'n, nupan); CM and TEC tend to ng, SAC to n; spelling keeps m when a suffix shows it |
| "go" prefix | b'e- (nb'esamäj) | CM often drops the b': nesamäj |
| rapid action | not marked (use aninäq, chanin) | CM and Poaquil add the suffix -xta- to an inflected verb, plus -n (intransitive) or -j (transitive): xelxtan "she left quickly", xkijaqxtaj "they opened it quickly"; less common elsewhere (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, pp. 216-217) |
| "two" | ka'i' | ka'ib' kept by some speakers, especially daykeepers in ritual |
| passive of root transitives | vowel tensing (xb'an, xloq') | -Vx suffix (xchapäx, xtz'etëx) spreading, especially where lax vowels are few |
| "where" | akuchi' | ak'uchi, k'uchi, k'uchi'; ape' |
| "what" | achike | tux, atux, antux; nak (LA) |
| "rain" | jöb' | jäb' |
| "dog" | tz'i' | unpossessed tz'e' in most towns; tz'i' when possessed |
| "cat" | mes | mis, syan, lu'x |
| "sheep" | karne'l | chij |
| "chayote" | k'ix | ch'ima' / ch'uma' (TEC, San Marcos la Laguna, San Lucas Tolimán). Warning: in most other varieties, ch'ima' said to an adult means "vagina"; outside those towns, say k'ix |
| "salt" | atz'am | atz'an |
| "potato" | is | saqwäch, paps |
| "I" | rin | yin, ri'in, in re' |
| "we" | röj | roj, ri'oj |
| "you (pl)" | rix | ri'ix |
| "no" | manäq | näq; mani (often ni in children's speech) |
| title for a man | ma (adult), a (young) | ma marks respect in most towns, but in San Pedro Sacatepéquez and SAC it is felt as disrespectful; there a is the safe choice (San Pedro Sacatepéquez says ri'j a Xwan for an elderly don Juan), and Santa María Cauqué generalizes a to boys, young men and grown men alike |
| title for a woman | te (adult), xta (young) | ya competing with te in some towns; elsewhere ya for older women; titles falling out of use in places |
| "twenty" | juk'al (things), juwinäq (people, time) | winäq generalizing to all counting |
| eighty | kajk'al | jumuch' (muchi' units), kajwinäq |
| "then" | k'a ri' | k'a ri, k'ari; Spanish tons in speech |
| plural of mouse, star | taq ch'oy, taq ch'umil | ch'oyi', ch'umila' for speakers who treat them as animate; Maxwell's newer grammar makes the star case contextual: taq ch'umil for stars as distant objects, ch'umila' when they act on our lives (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 297) |
| "see you later" | ch'o'n chik k'a | ch'o'n yan chik |