Chapter 25: Reading Real Kaqchikel

Starting point#

Ana has borrowed a photocopied anthology of Kaqchikel tales from a Tz'ikin. She is staring at the first page.

Notice what Tz'ikin makes Ana do: find the first word (a time-setting phrase), find the predicate, break the predicate into aspect, Set B, Set A and stem, then put the subject back. That is the whole method, and the rest of this chapter simply slows it down.

How it works#

The decoder: seven moves#

Every sentence you meet can be handled with the same sequence of moves. You have seen each one in an earlier chapter; here they are assembled into a routine. A predicate is the part of the sentence that says something about the subject (a verb, or a noun, adjective or positional used without any "to be"). Aspect is the prefix that says whether the event is ongoing (incompletive, present), finished (completive, past), expected (potential, future) or commanded (imperative). Set A (ergative) marks transitive subjects and possessors; Set B (absolutive) marks intransitive subjects, transitive objects and the subjects of non-verbal predicates.

1. Skip the frame. Opening phrases like ojer kan "long ago", jun q'ij "one day", toq "when", k'a ri' "then", ke ri' "thus" set the scene. Note them, then look past them for the predicate.
2. Find the predicate. It is usually the first content word after the frame. If it begins with x-, n-, y-, xt-, xk-, t- or k-, it is a verb. If it is k'o, a noun, an adjective or a positional (tz'uyül, pa'äl, kotz'öl), it is a non-verbal predicate and its subject will be a free Set B word (in, at, Ø, öj, ïx, e) or a following noun phrase.
3. Strip the aspect. x- completive; n- (before zero 3sB) or y- (elsewhere) incompletive; xt-/xk- potential; t-/k- imperative. What remains begins with the pronoun markers.
4. Read Set B, then Set A. After the aspect comes Set B (i-, a-, Ø, oj-, ix-, e-; before a vowel in-, at-, Ø, oj-, ix-, e'-). If a Set A marker follows (on verbs in-/inw-, a-/aw-, ru-/r-, qa-/q-, i-/iw-, ki-/k-; on nouns the 1s form is nu-/w-), the verb is transitive: Set B is the object and Set A the subject. Remember that u- after x-, n-, xt-, t- is the 3sA ru- with its r dropped (xutij, nutij, xtutij, tutij). If there is no Set A, the verb is intransitive and Set B is the subject.
5. Identify the stem and its voice. A CVC stem with a lax vowel after Set A is a root transitive (-tij, -b'än, -löq'); a stem in -Vj is a derived transitive. A stem in -on or -Vn with no Set A is an antipassive (the agent is the subject and has probably been questioned, relativized or focused). A tense-vowel root or a -Vx stem with no Set A is a passive. Set A + stem + -on with no aspect prefix is the perfect ("has done").
6. Collect the satellites. Directionals come right after the verb (pe, el, apo, kan, qa, aqanäj). Relational nouns carry Set A and point at participants (richin, roma, rik'in, chre, chuwäch, chirij, pa ruwi', chuxe'). Then come the object noun phrase, the subject noun phrase, and any place or time phrase, in that order unless something has been fronted for focus.
7. Weigh the particles. xa "just, merely", xe "only", kan "really, firmly", k'a "then, still, until", na "still, yet", chik "again, anymore", yan "already", ta "irrealis", wi "location trace", ök "softener". They do not change the event; they change how the speaker feels about it.

Work through the moves on Ana's sentence:

q'ij q'ij   n-Ø-u-tij            ri kinäq'    pa ru-tiko'n     jun rijiläj achin
every day   INCOMPL-3sB-3sA-eat  the beans    in 3sA-field     a old man
"every day it eats the beans in an old man's field"

Frame: q'ij q'ij. Predicate: nutij. Aspect n-, Set B zero (the beans), Set A u- (the rabbit, known from the previous sentence), root transitive stem -tij with its lax vowel intact because it is still the last syllable. No directional. One prepositional phrase, pa rutiko'n, whose noun carries the second Set A prefix, ru-, this time as a possessor: it is possessed by the following phrase jun rijiläj achin, exactly the "X of Y" order from Chapter 4. The subject is not repeated because Kaqchikel narrative, once it has introduced a character with jun, keeps it alive with nothing but the zero pronoun, and reintroduces it with ri only when another character has intervened.

Decoding, slot by slot#

Here is the decoder applied to eight forms of the kind you will meet in this chapter. Read each row left to right: strip the aspect prefix, then the Set B slot, then the Set A slot, and what remains is the stem with whatever voice suffix it carries.

What narrative Kaqchikel looks like#

Authentic tales and speeches share a set of habits. Learning to expect them is half of reading.

Openings. Tales begin with a time frame that pushes the events out of the present: ojer "before, in earlier times", ojer kan "long ago" (kan adds the sense of something left behind, settled), ojer ojer kan "long, long ago" with reduplication for emphasis, or toq rub'anon kan "when it was so, back then". A reader who recognizes the opening immediately knows two things: the story is traditional, and the verbs may swing between completive and incompletive.

Introducing and tracking characters. New characters arrive with jun, often as the subject of k'o: ojer kan k'o jun ti umül "long ago there was a little rabbit". From then on the same character is tracked with ri (ri umül "the rabbit") or simply with the zero pronoun on the verb. The demonstrative frame re ... re' ("this") picks a character out for special attention in the moment: re achin re' "this man". Chapter 6 introduced this system; in texts it is the main device for knowing who is who.

Historical present. Once the scene is set, many narrators shift into the incompletive: nutij, nik'o, nkib'ij "it eats, he passes, they say", even though the events are long past. English does the same in lively storytelling ("so this man walks in and says..."). Do not translate every incompletive as present tense; translate the story in the tense English storytelling would use.

Sequencing. k'a ri' "then, after that" links events; ke ri' "thus, like that" sums up what has just happened or introduces a manner; k'ate' "suddenly" marks a turn; roma ri' "because of that, therefore" (many published texts spell it ruma ri') draws a conclusion; ke ri' xkib'ij kan "so they left it said" is a typical closing formula that hands the story back to the ancestors.

xa and xe. xa "just, merely" is everywhere in narrative: xa man xch'o'n ta pe "it just didn't answer", xa xe "only". It softens, limits and contrasts, and it is often the word that carries a joke.

Quoted speech. Direct speech is marked by xcha' "he/she said" (from the quotative particle cha, Chapter 22), usually after the quotation:

"¿Achike nab'än wawe'?" xcha' ri utiw.
"What are you doing here?" said the coyote.

Speech can also be introduced with xub'ij chre "he said to him".

Perfect forms. Ceremonial speech and the "moral" of a tale lean on the perfect (Set A + stem + -on, Chapter 15): kib'anon "they have done", rub'in kan "he has said (and it remains)". The perfect presents a completed action as a state that still holds, which is why ceremonial speech prefers it to the completive: it states custom as something established rather than as something that merely happened.

Couplets and chiasmus. Formal Kaqchikel loves saying a thing twice in parallel: qate' qatata' "our mothers, our fathers" for "our ancestors"; ruwäch ulew "the face of the earth"; xuya', xusipaj "he gave, he bestowed". When the second half reverses the order of the first (A B, then B A), the figure is called chiasmus. Chapter 22 introduced couplets in conversation; in literature they are structural.

Worked analysis 1: a children's chain dialogue#

The first excerpt comes from a children's game-dialogue called Qate' Pixokök ("Our mother Pixokök"), printed in the bilingual anthology of Salazar Tetzagüic (1995). One group of children asks for fire; the other group keeps deflecting with a chain of "where is X?" questions. Four lines from the chain (spacing and glottal stops lightly regularized):

¿Akuchi'  e    k'o    wi   ri   popoli'?
where     3pB  exist  LOC  the  Popoli'
"Where are the Popoli' (the lords)?"

E    tz'uy-ül   kan        pa  ru-wi'   ab'äj.
3pB  sit-STAT   DIR(left)  in  3sA-top  stone
"They are seated on top of some stones."

¿K'uchi'  Ø-k'o      wi   ri   ab'äj?
where     3sB-exist  LOC  the  stone
"Where are the stones?"

Xa    x-Ø-u-k'waj            r-aqän    ya'.
just  COMPL-3sB-3sA-carry    3sA-leg   water
"The river just carried them off."

Commentary. Line 1 is the textbook location question from Chapter 5 and Chapter 20: akuchi' + Set B + k'o + wi. The e is the free 3pB word required because k'o is not a verb; the wi is the trace that must appear when the place is questioned. Line 2 answers with a positional stative (Chapter 18): tz'uyül "seated" takes e as its subject and cannot take an aspect prefix. kan adds that they were left sitting there; pa ruwi' ab'äj "on the top of stone(s)" is a relational noun phrase (Chapter 21), and ab'äj is unpluralized because stones rank low on the animacy hierarchy (Chapter 7). Line 3 repeats the question with k'uchi', a shortened variant of akuchi' that the anthology uses freely; the subject is now singular in form, so k'o has zero Set B. Line 4 is a transitive sentence in the old unmarked order: verb, then object (understood, the stones), then subject raqän ya' "river" (literally "leg of water"). The x- is completive; u- is 3sA with its r dropped after x-; -k'waj "carry" is one of the few root transitives with a tense vowel, and its imperative tak'waj takes no suffix. xa "just" gives the answer its shrug. Notice the whole chain never names a new noun without ri: each answer's object becomes the next question's ri-marked subject, which is exactly the ri-tracking described above.

One word is not in the modern glossary: popoli', the name of the council lords in the game, appears only in this anthology; it is apparently built on pop "reed mat", the seat of authority behind ajpop "leader". Treat it as a proper name.

Worked analysis 2: the opening of a tale#

The second excerpt is the first sentence of a tale about the xtaq tz'ula' (little gnomes who live near water), printed in the same anthology (Salazar Tetzagüic 1995). Spacing is lightly regularized; the spellings are the anthology's.

Ojer  kan         toq   n-Ø-b'e-samäj              jun  achin,
ago   DIR(left)   when  INCOMPL-3sB-go-work        a    man
"Long ago, when a man would go off to work,"

q'ij  q'ij  n-Ø-ik'o           pa  ru-wi'   jun  q'a'n,
day   day   INCOMPL-3sB-pass   in  3sA-top  a    bridge
"every day he passed over a bridge"

ak'uchi  n-Ø-ki-b'ij            ri   winäq   chi    k'o    b'ey
where    INCOMPL-3sB-3pA-say    the  people  that   exist  time

y-e'-ak'ax-äx              ri   xtaq      tz'ul-a'.
INCOMPL-3pB-hear-PASS      the  small.PL  gnome-PL
"where people say that sometimes the little gnomes are heard."

Commentary. The frame is doubled: ojer kan sets the era, toq "when" opens a background clause. nb'esamäj is the go-and-do construction from Chapter 14: aspect n-, zero 3sB, the motion element b'e-, and the intransitive -samäj; the man is introduced with jun only after the verb, the normal place for new subjects of intransitives. nik'o "passes" is the same pattern without b'e-; pa ruwi' "on top of, over" is the relational noun from Chapter 21. The relative clause begins with ak'uchi, a variant of akuchi', and contains a three-layer structure worth slowing down for: nkib'ij ri winäq "the people say", the complementizer chi "that" (Chapter 22), and a passive verb ye'ak'axäx "they are heard". Take the passive apart: y- incompletive, e'- 3pB before a vowel, -ak'axaj "hear" with its final -aj replaced by -äx (lax vowel + x), the regular passive of a derived transitive from Chapter 17. The 3pB tells you the gnomes are the ones heard; no agent is named because the point is that nobody knows who hears them. k'o b'ey "there is (a) time" is the idiom for "sometimes", built on b'ey "time, occasion". Finally xtaq is the plural form of the diminutive adjective (Chapter 8) and tz'ula' is tz'ul "gnome" with the animate plural -a' (Chapter 7). Spelling note: we write q'a'n "bridge" as both the anthology and the grammar summary of Brown, Maxwell and Little do.

Worked analysis 3: two lines of a children's song#

The third excerpt is the opening couplet of Kojetz'an Ch'umil ("Let's play, Star"), a children's song printed in Salazar Tetzagüic (1995). It is two lines long and uses three structures you can now read at sight.

Ch'umil,  k-a-qa          pe,
star      IMP-2sB-descend DIR(hither)
"Star, come down,"

k-oj-etz'an      jub'a'    chi  w-achoch.
HORT-1pB-play    a little  at   1sA-home
"let's play a little at my house."

Commentary. The song opens with a vocative (ch'umil "star") and an imperative: k- before a non-zero Set B, a- (2sB before a consonant), the intransitive -qa "descend", and the directional pe "toward here" that turns "descend" into "come down". The second line is the hortative with 1pB oj- (Chapter 13): kojetz'an "let's play", softened by jub'a' "a little". chi wachoch "at my home" shows a Class 6 noun that is always possessed (Chapter 4); the song uses the root -achoch, a variant of the -ochoch you learned (wachoch beside wochoch; the fixed phrase rachoch Ajaw "church" keeps the same variant), and the free word for a house is jay. Songs like this are the easiest authentic texts you will find: short lines, simple commands, first and second person.

Worked analysis 4: a triplet from a marriage discourse#

The fourth excerpt is a formal one. It comes from a choloj, a ceremonial discourse delivered by a k'utunel (the spokesman who petitions for a bride), recorded in Comalapa in 1972 from the cholonel Demetrio Sotz and printed in Salazar Tetzagüic (1995). The speaker has just reminded everyone that the creator gave life; now he hands the custom down the generations in three parallel lines. Spelling lightly regularized.

Xa    ke    k'a   re'   ki-b'an-on     pe          ri   qa-te'      qa-tata',
just  thus  then  this  3pA-do-PERF    DIR(hither) the  1pA-mother  1pA-father
"Just so have our mothers and fathers done it, (handing it down) to us;"

xa    ke    k'a   re'   qa-b'an-on     chik   k'a   pe           ri   röj,
just  thus  then  this  1pA-do-PERF    again  then  DIR(hither)  the  we
"just so have we in turn done it;"

xa    ke    k'a   re'   xt-Ø-i-b'än        k'a   kan          rix   chi  ru-wäch    ruwäch'ulew.
just  thus  then  this  POT-3sB-2pA-do     then  DIR(left)    you   at   3sA-face   earth
"just so will you do it, and leave it so, upon the face of the earth."

Commentary. Three lines, three generations, three verb forms. The first two are perfects (Chapter 15): kib'anon "they have done", qab'anon "we have done"; the third is a potential (Chapter 12): xtib'än "you will do", with the object a zero 3sB (the custom) and the subject the 2pA i-. The directionals are doing quiet but exact work: pe "toward here" on the ancestors' and our own doing (the custom travels toward the present), kan "remaining" on yours (you will leave it in place for those after you). xa ke k'a re' "just thus" is the refrain; the k'a between words is the discourse particle that gives ritual speech its walking rhythm and cannot be translated word by word. qate' qatata' "our mother(s), our father(s)" is a fixed couplet meaning "our ancestors"; chi ruwäch ruwäch'ulew "upon the face of the earth" is another, and the k'utunel returns to it after nearly every clause. The free pronouns röj and rix are added after verbs that already mark their subjects: that redundancy is emphasis, and it makes the parallel audible. This is parallelism in miniature: the shape of each line is identical, but the people inside it advance one step each time.

A line from the Kaqchikel Chronicles#

The oldest Kaqchikel prose is the sixteenth-century chronicle known in Spanish as the Memorial de Sololá or Anales de los Kaqchikeles and in Kaqchikel as Kiwujil Xajila'. Maxwell's grammar summary in Brown, Maxwell and Little (2006) quotes a line from it to illustrate parallel structure; here it is, with the colonial verb tzalo glossed simply as "fought":

X-Ø-tzalo      k-ochoch,    x-Ø-tzalo     k'a   ki-tz'i',  k-äk',    x-Ø-tzalo    k-onojel  k-awäj.
COMPL-3sB-fought 3pA-house  COMPL-3sB-fought then 3pA-dog  3pA-fowl  COMPL-3sB-fought 3pA-all 3pA-domestic.animal
"Their houses fought, their dogs and their turkeys fought, all their domestic animals fought."

Read it with the decoder: three completive intransitive verbs with zero 3sB, each followed by a possessed subject noun with 3pA (k- before a vowel, ki- before a consonant). In her newer reference grammar Maxwell takes tzalo itself apart: the root is -tzäl "fight" and the final -o is an old antipassive ending, which is exactly why the form is intransitive and its one participant, the fighter, is the Set B subject (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 300). The repetition of the verb at the head of each clause is the anaphora that Maya rhetoric prizes, and the list tightens from houses to dogs and fowl to "all their domestic animals" (awäj, the animals of the house compound), the generic term closing the set. One word has moved since the sixteenth century: äk' today means "hen, chicken", but in the old text it named the native fowl, the turkey, and Maxwell translates it so. When you go on to read the Chronicles themselves, expect sentence after sentence built like this.

Patterns at a glance#

The decoder, compressed#

Markers of narrative style#

Vocabulary#

Usage and dialect notes#

Older and looser spellings. Texts printed before the 1987 ALMG standard settled, and many texts since, vary in small ways: k'uchi / ak'uchi for akuchi', chi ri instead of chi ri', xtaq written as a separate word before a noun, and inconsistent marking of lax vowels (tz'ula / tz'ula'). Comalapa authors may drop the b' of b'e- (e for b'e), and Lake Atitlán authors write kamik for wakami and -uma for -oma. Read for the morpheme, not the letter: if a word looks almost like one you know, it probably is.

Punctuation of speech. Quoted speech may be set off with dashes, with quotation marks, or with nothing at all; the reliable signal is xcha' or xub'ij after it. In ceremonial texts, long sentences are stitched with k'a and ja k'a ri "and it is this that...", which mark rhythm rather than grammar.

Tense in translation. A tale can shift from completive to incompletive and back within one paragraph. Translate with the tense English storytelling would use and keep the Kaqchikel shift in mind as a mark of liveliness, not as a mistake.

Couplets are not repetition. When a text says xuya', xusipaj "he gave, he gifted", do not cut the second verb. Pairing is the mark of the formal register; removing it flattens the text the way removing rhyme flattens a hymn.

Pitfalls for English speakers.

1. The subject noun usually comes after the object noun, so xutij ri kinäq' ri umül means "the rabbit ate the beans" unless context says otherwise; modern writers also use subject-first order freely (Chapter 17). Do not assume the first noun after the verb is the doer.
2. A word beginning with ru- or r- may be a possessed noun, not a verb: rachib'il "his friend", rajaw "its owner". Check for an aspect prefix before you call it a verb.
3. e before a positional, adjective or k'o is the plural Set B word, not "and": e k'o "they are (there)", e tz'uyül "they are seated".
4. wi after k'o is the location trace, not "if" (Chapter 20); wi meaning "if" stands at the start of its clause.
5. xa often lands where English would say "but" or "only" (xa man xunimaj ta "but he did not believe him"); it is a limiting particle, "just", and the contrast comes from context. Do not look for a separate word for "but".
6. An incompletive in a tale is not a sign that the story is happening now; it is the historical present.

Looking back and ahead#

This chapter has asked you to use everything at once: the verb templates and aspect prefixes of Chapters 10 to 13, the directionals of Chapter 14, the perfect of Chapter 15, the voices of Chapter 17, the relational nouns of Chapter 21 and the discourse particles of Chapter 22. Appendix A gathers the paradigms you will want open beside you while you read, and Appendix E lists texts to read next: the Kaqchikel Chronicles in Maxwell and Hill's edition, the Popol Wuj in its closely related K'iche', and the modern poems and tales published by Cholsamaj and Kaqchikel Cholchi'. From here the teacher is the text itself.