Chapter 24: People, Work, Body, and Feelings

Starting point#

At a fiesta in Tecpán, a Tz'ikin introduces Ana to his family.

The tools here: the deictic frame re ... re' "this" (Chapter 6: Pointing Words), names with rub'i' (Chapter 2: Greetings, Names, and Polite Talk), nouns as predicates with Set B (absolutive) subjects (rija' ajkem, in aj Pa Jotöl, at k'ulan; Chapter 3: Pronouns and "Being"), possession and kinship (nute', wana', rujuna'; Chapter 4: Possession), numbers (Chapter 9: Numbers, Counting, and Time), negation (man k'ulan ta; Chapter 19: Negation, Doubt, and "If only"), and chi "that" (Chapter 22: Connecting Ideas and Keeping a Conversation Going).

How it works#

Family talk#

Introducing. Point, name, describe: Re nute' re'. Te Ixk'at rub'i'. Rija' ajkem. The kinship noun carries a Set A (ergative) possessive prefix; the name comes with rub'i' "her/his name"; the job is a noun predicate with a zero 3rd person Set B marker. To ask about someone's family:

Age. "Year" is juna'; "how old are you?" is literally "how many your years?": ¿Jaru ajuna'? (also ¿Janipe' ajuna'?). The answer is a number plus the possessed noun: Juk'al wo'o' nujuna' "I am twenty-five" (twenty five my-years); "my years" is nujuna' and "our years" qajuna', which answers the "Try it first" above. Above nineteen, the additive count of Chapter 9 applies: juk'al jun 21, juk'al ka'i' 22, kak'al 40, kak'al waqxaqlajuj 58, oxk'al 60. Speakers who keep the k'al / winäq distinction use winäq for "twenty" when counting people and years (juwinäq "twenty", kawinäq "forty", as in kawinäq juna' "forty years"); both are understood.

Marital status. k'ulan "married" is a stative adjective; the verb is -k'ule' "get married": xk'ule' "she got married", xek'ule' "they got married". The wedding is k'ulub'ik. A widow or widower is malka'n.

The kinship system. Kaqchikel kin terms care about two things English ignores: the sex of the speaker, and relative age between siblings. Most kin nouns lose a suffix when possessed (te'ej "mother" but nute' "my mother"; tata'aj but nutata'), as explained in Chapter 4. Here is the core set in the first person singular, with the unpossessed form where it differs.

So when a Tz'ikin speaks, Ixchel is wana' "my sister"; when xta Ixchel speaks, Tz'ikin is nuxib'al "my brother". If Ixchel had a younger sister, that sister would be nuchaq'; and Tz'ikin would call a younger brother nuchaq' too. The words nimal and chaq' are not "brother" and "sister"; they are "older / younger sibling like me". The title words ta / tat "father, sir" and nan "mother, ma'am" are used as polite address (nana in the dialogue), and an adult may address a much younger person as wal "my child" regardless of actual kinship.

Cousins. Cousins are named by putting ch'iti- "little" (the same element as ch'utin "small"; many towns say ch'uti-) in front of the sibling terms, just as uncle and aunt are a "little father" and a "little mother". That means the whole sibling system, with its speaker's-sex and relative-age distinctions, carries over one degree outward:

The unpossessed citation forms are ch'iti'ana', ch'itixib'alon, and ch'itichaq'. So a female cousin of a Tz'ikin is his nuch'iti'ana'; the same young woman, speaking of him, says nuch'itixib'al. Flattening all of this into a single word "cousin" is exactly the kind of shortcut that gives a learner away; keeping the distinctions is part of the real competence this chapter is after.

A short text:

Ri rach'alal ri a Tz'ikin

Ri a Tz'ikin k'o rute', k'o rutata', k'o jun rana'. Ri rute' te Ixk'at rub'i'; ajkem, nkemon pa rochoch.
Ri rutata' ma Kawoq rub'i'; tikonel, k'o rawän. Ri rana' xta Ixchel rub'i'; k'ayinel, nuk'ayij ichaj pa k'ayb'äl.
K'o chuqa' jun rumama', malka'n chik; rija' k'o pa rochoch ri ma Kawoq. Ri rati't kaminäq chik.
Ri a Tz'ikin man k'ulan ta, xa ja ri' k'o jun rachib'il aj Tz'olöj Ya', a Tojil rub'i'. Rije' jantape' yetzijon.

Tz'ikin's family. Tz'ikin has a mother, a father, and a sister. His mother is called Ixk'at; she is a weaver and weaves at home. His father is called Kawoq; he is a farmer and has a cornfield. His sister is called Ixchel; she is a vendor and sells vegetables in the market. He also has a grandfather, now a widower; he lives in Kawoq's house. His grandmother is dead. Tz'ikin is not married, but he has a friend from Sololá called Tojil. They talk all the time.

Jobs and professions#

To ask what someone does: ¿Achike asamaj? "What is your work?" (samaj "work", possessed nusamaj, asamaj, rusamaj). Two answers are common: a noun predicate, Rin in tijonel "I am a teacher", or the possessed noun with the job, Tijonel nusamaj "Teacher is my work". The verb is -samäj "work" (intransitive): yisamäj pa tijob'äl "I work at the school".

Job words come in two main shapes (Chapter 7: Nouns: Plurals, People Words, and Word-Building):

1. An intransitive verb stem plus -el (plural -ela'), the "one who does it" suffix. Many of these stems are antipassives in -n (Chapter 17: Voice: Passive, Antipassive, and Focus).

2. The prefix aj- "person of, person who does" plus a noun: the oldest pattern, also used for hometown (aj Iximche' "from Tecpán"; Chapter 2).

Talking about work:

¿Achike asamaj?  -  Rin in aq'omanel. Yisamäj pa aq'omab'äl jay.
What do you do?  -  I'm a doctor. I work at the hospital.

¿Achike rusamaj ri axib'al?  -  Tijonel rusamaj. Nsamäj pa tijob'äl pa Chiq'a'l.
What does your brother do?  -  He's a teacher. He works at the school in Comalapa.

Ri te Ixk'at ajkem; nukem po't, nuk'ayij pa k'ayb'äl.
Ixk'at is a weaver; she weaves blouses and sells them in the market.

K'iy rusamaj ri ma Kawoq; jukumaj nb'e pa juyu', k'a runaj ntzolin pe.
Kawoq has a lot of work; he goes to the fields early and comes back late.

Ninch'äk nupwäq pa k'ayb'äl.
I earn my money in the market.

Majun rusamaj ri ala'.
The young man has no job.

School#

Ri a Tz'ikin tijonel. Q'ij q'ij nb'e pa tijob'äl pa Chiq'a'l.
Tz'ikin is a teacher. Every day he goes to the school in Comalapa.

Nuk'üt ri tz'ib' chike ri ak'wala'; rije' nkitz'ib'aj pa kiwuj.
He shows the letters to the children; they write them in their books.

¿La yatikir natz'ib'aj ab'i' pa Kaqchikel?  -  Ja', yitikir.
Can you write your name in Kaqchikel?  -  Yes, I can.

Ana nutijoj ri' Kaqchikel; k'iy nuk'utuj.
Ana is studying Kaqchikel; she asks a lot.

Clothing#

Traditional dress, tzyäq (possessed nutzyaq, atzyaq), is an identity marker, especially for women, whose blouse designs can tell a knowledgeable eye which town they come from. The verb for wearing is -kusaj "use": ninkusaj nupo't "I wear my blouse". "What are you wearing?" is ¿Achike tzyäq nakusaj?

One men's garment needs a proper introduction, because English has no word for it. The xerka is a rectangle of dark woolen cloth worn hanging over the front of the trousers like a short apron-kilt, held in place by the sash; in Guatemalan Spanish it is called rodillera. It is one of the most distinctive pieces of men's traditional dress in the central highlands, plain where the women's po't is many-colored: typically just black and off-white wool. It is not a jacket; a jacket or sweater, for either sex, is koton.

Verbs: -kusaj "wear, put on", -elesaj "take off", -xim "tie", -söl "untie, loosen", -jäl "change". Describing: pim "thick", xax "thin (of cloth)", k'ak'a' "new", rij "old (of things)", colors (käq, säq, q'ëq, q'än, räx; Chapter 8: Describing Things and People), jeb'ël "beautiful", k'iy rub'onil "many-colored".

Ri te Ixk'at nukusaj jun po't käq, jun uq q'ëq chuqa' jun pa's.
Ixk'at wears a red blouse, a black skirt, and a sash.

Nuxim rupa's, k'a ri' nuya' ruxoq'ob' pa ruwi'.
She ties her sash, then puts her hair ribbon on her head.

Ri ma Kawoq nukusaj kamixa', wexaj, jun ximb'äl chuqa' rupawi'. Töq k'o tew, nukusaj rukoton.
Kawoq wears a shirt, trousers, a belt, and his hat. When it's cold, he wears his sweater.

Pa nimaq'ij ri ma Kawoq nukusaj chuqa' ri ruxerka chuwäch ri ruwex. Q'ëq chuqa' saqsöj ri ruxerka.
At the fiesta Kawoq also wears his xerka over the front of his trousers. His xerka is black and off-white.

¿Achike tzyäq nakusaj chwa'q pa nimaq'ij?  -  Ninkusaj ri nupo't k'ak'a'.
What will you wear tomorrow at the fiesta?  -  I'll wear my new blouse.

Pim ri akoton; jeb'ël.
Your sweater is thick; it's lovely.

Culture note: weaving. The woman's blouse is woven on a backstrap loom, a set of sticks and strings with one end tied to a post or tree and the other to a strap around the weaver's back, so that her body keeps the warp taut. It needs no fixed frame, so it can be set up wherever there is a moment to weave, and a weaver can take it along. Girls learn from their mothers and grandmothers, and the weaving sessions are also where stories and news are exchanged. The patterns are both personal and communal: certain motifs mark a town, while the weaver's own choices of color and figure show her skill and taste. A handwoven po't takes weeks or months and is correspondingly valued; saying jeb'ël apo't "your blouse is beautiful" is always welcome, and asking ¿La rat xakem? "Did you weave it yourself?" shows you understand what you are looking at.

The body#

Body-part nouns belong to the class that drops a suffix when possessed (Chapter 4): the unpossessed citation form ends in -aj (jolomaj "head"), and the possessed form is the bare root (nujolom "my head"). Because body parts are almost always someone's, you will mostly meet the possessed forms.

Some notes. wachaj / -wäch is "face" and also "eye", and it is inside many idioms you already know: ¿La ütz awäch? "How are you?" (is your face good?), nqa chi nuwäch "I like it" (it descends before my face), wetaman awäch "I know you" (I know your face), chuwäch "in front of". k'u'x "heart" is the seat of feeling: nkiköt nuk'u'x "my heart is glad", ütz nuna' nuk'u'x "I feel well at heart". -wi' "head, top" gives pa ruwi' "on top of". -chi' "mouth, edge" gives chuchi' "at the edge of" and ruchi' jay "doorway". And -q'a' "hand" and -aqän "leg" give the measures for height: nim raqän "tall" (his leg is big), ko'öl raqän "short".

Nim raqän ri a Tojil; ko'öl raqän ri xta Ixchel.
Tojil is tall; Ixchel is short.

Säq ruwi' ri numama'.
My grandfather's hair is white.

Kaji' raqän ri tz'i', ka'i' ruxikin, jun rujey.
A dog has four legs, two ears, one tail.

Health and sickness#

"Sick" is yawa', an adjective used as a predicate: in yawa' "I'm sick", yawa' ri ne'y "the baby is sick". yab'il is "illness", -yawäj "get sick", aq'om "medicine", aq'omanel "doctor, healer", aq'omab'äl jay "hospital", -aq'omaj "treat, cure". Pain is the intransitive verb -q'axon "hurt, ache", whose subject is the body part: nq'axon nujolom "my head hurts" (literally: my head is aching).

A visit to the healer:

Feelings and conditions#

Kaqchikel expresses emotions and bodily states with four different grammatical patterns. Knowing which pattern a word uses is part of knowing the word.

1. Intransitive verbs. The feeling is an event or process, with a Set B subject and an aspect prefix.

2. Set B + adjective (stative). The feeling is a state you are in.

3. k'o + possessed noun. The feeling is a thing you "have": k'o woyowal "I have anger" = "I'm angry".

4. -pe + possessed noun. The feeling "comes" to you: a beginning, a surge. xpe woyowal "my anger came" = "I got angry". The same frame with chwe "to me" is used for illnesses and sensations: xpe ojöb' chwe "I got a cough".

Some other frequent expressions:

Usage point. "I am happy" can be yikiköt (verb: I rejoice, I'm being happy) or nkiköt nuk'u'x (my heart is glad); there is no adjective "happy" used with in. "I'm angry" is k'o woyowal, never a verb. "I'm tired" is in kosinäq (state) or xikos (I got tired) or yikos (I'm getting tired). Learn each emotion word with its frame.

A day in the life#

Here the daily-routine verbs of Chapter 10: Intransitive Verbs in the Incompletive and the connectors of Chapter 22 tell a day. a Tz'ikin describes his weekday.

Ruq'ij jun tijonel

Pa nimaq'a', pa waqi' ramaj, yik'astäj. Yiyakatäj, yinatin, ninjik' nuwi', ninkusaj nutzyaq.
K'a ri' nintij ri saqawa'in: wäy, kinäq', jun kape. Pa wuqu' ramaj yinel el pa wochoch, yib'e pa tijob'äl.
Chi la' yisamäj rik'in ri ak'wala': nink'üt ri tz'ib' chike, yojsik'in, yojtz'ib'an, jantape' yetze'en.
Pa nik'aj q'ij nqatij ri nimawa'in junam. Pa tiqaq'ij yitzolin pe pa wochoch, kosinäq chik.
Yinuxlan jub'a', ninsik'ij jun wuj, k'a ri' ninb'än ri nusamaj richin chwa'q.
Töq noq'a' pe, nintij ri q'eqawa'in, yitzijon rik'in ri a Tojil pa oyonib'äl, k'a ri' yiwär.
Wi k'o nimaq'ij, man yiwär ta jukumaj: yixajon, yib'ixan, yikiköt.

A teacher's day. In the morning, at six o'clock, I wake up. I get up, bathe, comb my hair, get dressed. Then I eat breakfast: tortillas, beans, a coffee. At seven I leave the house and go to the school. There I work with the children: I show them the letters, we read, we write, they laugh all the time. At midday we eat lunch together. In the afternoon I return home, tired by then. I rest a little, read a book, then do my work for tomorrow. When night falls I eat supper, talk with Tojil on the phone, and then I sleep. If there is a fiesta, I don't sleep early: I dance, I sing, I'm happy.

Routine verbs to collect: -k'astäj wake up, -yakatäj get up, -atin bathe, -jik' -wi' comb one's hair, -su' -i' dry oneself, -kusaj -tzyaq get dressed, -ch'äj -chi' brush one's teeth (wash one's mouth), -wa' eat, -el el go out, -b'e go, -apon arrive there, -samäj work, -tzolin pe come back, -uxlan rest, -wär sleep, -wär qa fall asleep, -achik'aj dream of.

The events of a life#

Xaläx pe jun ti ne'y pa rochoch ri wana'; Ix'ey rub'i'. Yalan yekiköt konojel.
A little baby was born in my sister's house; her name is Ix'ey. Everyone is very happy.

Junab'ir xk'ule' ri rachib'il ri a Tojil; nim ri k'ulub'ik, xojxajon jun aq'a'.
Last year Tojil's friend got married; the wedding was big, we danced all night.

Xkäm ri wati't ojer. Kaminäq chik töq xinaläx pe. Wakami malka'n ri numama'.
My grandmother died long ago. She was already dead when I was born. Now my grandfather is a widower.

Culture note: names and the day count. Alongside Spanish given names and surnames, many Kaqchikel people carry or choose names from the Maya calendar. The 260-day ritual count, the Cholq'ij, combines thirteen numbers with twenty day names, and a child's day of birth traditionally gives both a name and a character. The day names you have met as characters in this book are examples: Kawoq, Tz'ikin ("bird"), and the common Kej ("deer"), B'atz', Ajpub' ("hunter"). The keeper of this count is the ajq'ij, the daykeeper, who reads the days for ceremonies, healing, and important decisions. Women's names often begin with Ix-, the female prefix (Ixchel, Ixk'at, Ix'ey), as we saw in Chapter 7. When someone tells you their Maya name, it is fitting to ask about its day and meaning; it is a point of pride.

Culture note: how a town is run. Highland towns have long governed themselves through a ladder of offices that mix civic and religious duties. Men (and increasingly women) take turns serving, unpaid, in posts that carry growing responsibility and respect: looking after a saint's image in a cofradía (its members are ajpatan, "people of the service"), serving as councilman or mayor (ajch'ame'y, "the one with the staff", from the staff of office), sitting in the q'atb'äl tzij, the town hall, literally "place where the word is judged". Those who have climbed the ladder become nimawinäq, "big people", the respected elders whose advice is sought, and a trusted guide or leader is a k'amöl b'ey, "one who leads the way". The details differ from town to town, and much has changed, but service to the community still earns respect, and that respect still shapes how people address one another.

Patterns at a glance#

Introducing and asking

Kin by speaker

Body: unpossessed -aj, possessed bare root: jolomaj / nujolom; q'ab'aj / nuq'a'; aqanaj / waqän; wachaj / nuwäch.

Pain: nq'axon + possessed body part. Sickness: in yawa'; xiyawäj; aq'om; aq'omanel.

Feelings: four frames

Life events: -aläx pe / alaxik; -k'ule' / k'ulub'ik / k'ulan; -käm / kamik / kaminäq.

Vocabulary#

Like Chapter 23, this chapter carries more words than one sitting can hold, so the bank comes in two layers. The first table is the core: the kin terms, body parts, and feeling words the dialogues and exercises actually drill, and the ones later chapters lean on. The reference table below it collects the rest for browsing; the thematic tables inside the chapter (jobs, school, clothing, the events of a life) are also there when you need them.

Reference: more words for daily life#

Usage and dialect notes#

• Who is speaking matters. Before you say "sister" or "brother", decide: same sex as the speaker or not, older or younger? A man's sister is -ana'; a woman's brother is -xib'al; same-sex siblings are -nimal / -chaq' by age. The ch'iti- cousin terms inherit all of these distinctions, so the same questions decide between -ch'iti'ana', -ch'itixib'al, and -ch'itichaq'. Getting this right is one of the clearest signs of real competence.
• Children. A woman's child is -al; a man's is -k'ajol (son) or -me'al (daughter). Either parent can use -alk'wal for "child, offspring". Do not use ak'wal "child (young person)" as a kin term; for "my child" say wal or walk'wal.
• Polite address. nana / nan and tata / tat address older women and men respectfully; wal "my child" is warm address to someone young. These are not only for relatives.
• Age. The answer to ¿Jaru ajuna'? is a number plus nujuna'; do not insert a verb. The count above twenty varies (juk'al jun versus jun rukak'al; k'al versus winäq), and many speakers simply switch to Spanish numbers for ages and prices. Using the Kaqchikel count will be understood and appreciated.
• Job nouns as predicates. Rin in tijonel and Tijonel nusamaj are both normal; in is a Set B marker, not the verb "am". With a 3rd person subject there is no marker at all: Rija' ajkem.
• yawa' ixöq. Note that yawa' "sick" also appears in the polite phrase for "pregnant woman", and ajkem "weaver" is an old euphemism for the same; context will tell you which is meant.
• xerka and koton. The xerka is the woolen rodillera worn over the front of the trousers, not a jacket; "jacket, sweater" is koton. Mixing the two up will be understood but will amuse anyone wearing a xerka.
• -wäch idioms. Because -wäch is "face, eye, front", it turns up in greetings, liking, knowing people, and location. Keep the literal meaning in mind and the idioms will stick.
• Emotions and frames. Do not translate "I am angry" with in plus a noun; say k'o woyowal. Do not say in kiköt; say yikiköt. The frame is part of the word. For "I'm embarrassed" prefer the verb: yik'ïx, as in Yik'ix chi ninb'ij chawe "I'm embarrassed to tell you" (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 107).
• Feeling cold. "It's cold" is k'o tew or yalan tew; for "I'm cold" speakers build on tew chwe "cold to me": janila tew chwe "I'm very cold" and nsilïl tew chwe "I shiver with cold" are both what the authors of our source textbook write in their newer work (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, pp. 26-27), which also has the cold sitting on a person with -ij: janila k'o tew chqij "we are very cold" (literally: there is much cold on our backs). So say janila tew chwe, or k'o tew chwij with the cold "on" you; and yalan tew wakami "it's very cold today" always works.

Looking back and ahead#

With Chapter 23: Market, Food, and Home and this chapter you now have the vocabulary of ordinary life wrapped around the grammar of Parts I and II: kin and jobs (Chapters 4, 7), clothing and description (Chapter 8), the body and its idioms (Chapters 4, 21), feelings in four frames (Chapters 3, 5, 10, 16), and a connected daily narrative (Chapters 10, 12, 22). Chapter 25: Reading Real Kaqchikel takes the last step: authentic stories and speeches in which these same people, bodies, and feelings appear in the language's own voice.