Kaqchikel from the Ground Up a practical grammar

Appendix E: Sources and further reading

This book was written as an independent study companion. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from any of the works below, and it does not reproduce their dialogues, readings or exercises. The facts of Kaqchikel grammar and vocabulary are the common property of the language's speakers; the explanations, examples, tables, dialogues and exercises here are the author's own. The works listed are the ones a serious learner should go to next, and the ones against which this book's vocabulary was checked.

Reference grammars and textbooks

  • Brown, R. McKenna, Judith M. Maxwell and Walter E. Little. ¿La ütz awäch? Introduction to Kaqchikel Maya Language. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. A full first-year course from the Oxlajuj Aj summer program, with Maxwell's grammar summary and Little's Kaqchikel-English / English-Kaqchikel glossary. The single most useful companion to this book.
  • Lolmay Pedro García Matzar. Gramática pedagógica Kaqchikel. Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar (PRODIPMA), 1993. A pedagogical grammar in Spanish by a native-speaker linguist.
  • Chacach Cutzal, Martín. Rujotay Kaqchikel Ch'ab'äl. Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar, Instituto de Lingüística y Educación, 2004.
  • England, Nora C. Introducción a la gramática de los idiomas mayas. Guatemala: Cholsamaj, 2001. The clearest general introduction to Mayan grammar (ergativity, aspect, voice, positionals) in Spanish.
  • Patal Majzul, Filiberto, Lolmay Pedro Oscar García Matzar and Ixchel Carmelina Espantzay Serech. Rujunamaxik ri Kaqchikel Chi': Variación dialectal en Kaqchikel. Guatemala: Cholsamaj. The standard study of dialect variation, the basis of Appendix D.
  • Cojtí, Narciso, and Margarita López. "Variación dialectal del idioma Kaqchikel." In England and Elliott, eds., Lecturas sobre la lingüística maya. Guatemala: CIRMA, 1990.

Dictionaries

  • Cojtí, Narciso. Diccionario del idioma Kaqchikel, Kaqchikel-Español. Antigua Guatemala: Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín (PLFM), 1998.
  • Chacach Cutzal, Martín. Diccionario Kaqchikel-Español. Guatemala: PRODIPMA, Universidad Rafael Landívar, 1990.
  • Curruchich Gómez, María Luisa, and Serapio Coyote Tum. Diccionario de sinónimos del Kaqchikel. Quetzaltenango: Asociación de Escritores Mayances de Guatemala, 1989.
  • Coto, Thomás de. Thesaurus verborum: vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel. Ed. René Acuña. México: UNAM, 1983. A seventeenth-century dictionary; indispensable for reading colonial texts.

Literature and texts

  • Salazar Tetzagüic, Manuel de Jesús. Rupach'uxik kina'oj qati't qamama' / Características de la literatura maya kaqchikel. Guatemala: Cholsamaj, 1995. A Spanish essay on Kaqchikel literature followed by a bilingual anthology of tales (Xtaq Tz'ula', Ri K'üch, B'ajinel Siwan, Ri utiwa' chi ri' e k'o wi), children's texts (Qate' Pixokök, Masati' Ale', Kojetz'an Ch'umil), poems (Marcelino Tavila's Rujotay Che', the author's Wixjayil) and two ceremonial discourses of marriage petition, with a summary of the Popol Wuj. The excerpts analyzed in Chapter 25 come from this anthology.
  • Maxwell, Judith M., and Robert M. Hill II. Kaqchikel Chronicles: The Definitive Edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. Translation and commentary on the sixteenth-century Kiwujil Xajila' (Memorial de Sololá / Anales de los Kaqchikeles) and the Xpantzay documents; the main source for the historical prose quoted in the grammar summary of Brown, Maxwell and Little.
  • Popol Wuj. The K'iche' book of creation and lineage, closely related in language and in narrative tradition; Salazar Tetzagüic's anthology includes a Spanish summary, and many Kaqchikel tales echo its episodes (the four hundred boys who became stars, the animals who found maize).
  • Carey, David, Jr. Our Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives. Xkib'ij Kan Qate' Qatata'. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001. Oral history from Kaqchikel elders.
  • Yool Gómez, Juan. Ri kinimaq'ij ri chikopi'. Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar, Instituto Lingüístico, 1990. An illustrated children's book, easy first reading.
  • Petrich, Perla, ed. Vida de los ancianos / de las mujeres / de los hombres del Lago Atitlán. Guatemala: Cholsamaj, 1996. Bilingual life histories from the lake towns.

Institutions and programs

  • Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) and its Kaqchikel branch, Kaqchikel Cholchi': the official orthography of 1987 used in this book, and publisher of grammars, spelling guides and neologism lists.
  • Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín (PLFM), Antigua Guatemala: language school, dictionaries and the alphabet reforms of the 1970s that led to the ALMG standard.
  • Oxlajuj Aj Kaqchikel intensive summer program (Tulane University with Guatemalan partners): the teaching program out of which Brown, Maxwell and Little's textbook grew.
  • Editorial Cholsamaj, Guatemala City: the principal Maya-run publisher of Kaqchikel and other Mayan-language books.

On Kaqchikel communities

  • Fischer, Edward F., and Carol Hendrickson. Tecpán Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context. Boulder: Westview, 2003.
  • Hendrickson, Carol. Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
  • Little, Walter E. Mayas in the Marketplace: Tourism, Globalization, and Cultural Identity. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
  • Garzon, Susan, R. McKenna Brown, Julia Becker Richards and Wuqu' Ajpub'. The Life of Our Language: Kaqchikel Maya Maintenance, Shift and Revitalization. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
  • Fischer, Edward F., and R. McKenna Brown, eds. Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.