{"id":61971,"date":"2011-11-29T14:21:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T13:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?page_id=61971"},"modified":"2011-11-29T14:35:45","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T13:35:45","slug":"kaqchikel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaqchikel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Details collected by UNICEF<\/em><\/p>\n

Data on Kaqchikel<\/h5>\n

Alternative names<\/strong>: Cakchiquel<\/p>\n

Where it is spoken<\/strong>: Guatemala. Most Kaqchikel speakers live in the volcanic region of the department of Chimaltenango, near Lake Atitl\u00e1n, as well as in the neighbouring departments of Sacatep\u00e9quez, Solol\u00e1, Suchitep\u00e9quez and in the capital, Guatemala City.<\/p>\n

There are also some Kaqchikel speakers in Mexico, who migrated there in the 1980s to flee the \u201cviolencia<\/em>\u201d of the Guatemalan Civil War, which affected Mayan populations in particular.<\/p>\n

Classification<\/strong>: The Mayan language family<\/a>, K\u2019iche\u2019 branch.<\/p>\n

Among the 30 Mayan languages which are still spoken, Kaqchikel is close to K\u2019iche\u2019 and to Tz\u2019utujil.<\/p>\n

Main dialects<\/strong>: There are a great number of Kaqchikel dialects, but there is no agreement on exactly how many. Ethnologue.com<\/em> counts a dozen. Central and Eastern variants are those which have the largest number of speakers.<\/p>\n

Number of speakers<\/strong>: Generally estimates of Kaqchikel speakers in Guatemala are around 500,000. The Guatemalan census of 2002 gives the figure of 444,954 speakers.<\/p>\n

According to the 2000 Mexican census, the number of speakers there is no higher than thirty people.<\/p>\n

Status of the language<\/strong>: According to the Linguam\u00f3n <\/em>website:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe language is legally recognised in Guatemala. According to the Constitution, Spanish is considered the official language of the country, while \u201cvernacular languages\u201d are part of the nation\u2019s heritage. During the last few years, many initiatives have been implemented (like the Ley de Idiomas Nacionales<\/em> or \u201cLaw on National Languages\u201d of 2003) which aims to defend and promote the use of the languages of the Mayan, Garifuna and Xinca peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaqchikel is a standardised language, protected and promoted by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages<\/a>, an autonomous state organisation created in 1990.<\/p>\n

Vitality and transmission<\/strong>: Kaqchikel is one of Guatemala\u2019s most spoken Mayan languages (along with K\u2019iche\u2019, Mam and Q\u2019eqchi\u2019). However, this relatively large number of speakers is deceptive \u2013 in fact, the situation is not great. Kaqchikel speakers are almost all bilingual (Kaqchikel\/Spanish) and use of the ancestral language is becoming rarer, particularly among young people, who favour Spanish. People fear that younger generations will no longer transmit Kaqchikel to their children, which could see the number of speakers decrease very rapidly, and with it, entire branches of the culture and knowledge of Mayan people could disappear forever.<\/p>\n

Kaqchikel is featured on the series on endangered languages put together by Sorosoro. Shooting took place in 2009, in collaboration with the linguist Nikte Sis Iboy.<\/p>\n

See videos in Kaqchikel on Sorosoro’s website<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

History and ethnography of the language<\/h5>\n

We don\u2019t know much from pre-colonial times about the Kaqchikel people. When the region was conquered, the town of Iximche, whose ruins are very popular among tourists today, was the major political centre of the Kaqchikel.<\/p>\n

The region where the Kaqchikel people live is volcanic and poor, and is where cultivation of maize has long played an important role in the local economy.<\/p>\n

For a few years now, economic pressures have threatened this way of life, forcing the population to look for other ways to survive (arts and crafts linked the development of tourism), but in particular this has encouraged migration towards urban centres to look for work. This economic migration often results in people abandoning the Kaqchikel culture, knowledge and language.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h5>\n

Verdugo, Luc\u00eda. 2010. \u00ab Guatemala \u00bb. In Atlas socioling\u00fc\u00edstico de pueblos ind\u00edgenas en Am\u00e9rica Latina<\/em><\/a>, UNICEF. Tome 2, Pp 852- 888<\/p>\n

\n

Links<\/h5>\n

Page dedicated to Kaqchikel on Linguam\u00f3n<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Bibliography<\/h5>\n

Cojt\u00ed Macario, Narciso et al. 2001. Diccionario Kaqchikel<\/em>. Cholsamaj Fundacion, Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Garzon, Susan. 1998. The life of our language: Kaqchikel Maya maintenance, shift, and revitalization<\/em>. Univesity of Texas Press.<\/p>\n

Grinevald, C. 2007 \u00abEndangered Languages of Mexico and Central America\u00bb, in Brenzinger, M. (\u00e9d.), Language Diversity Endangered, Trends in Linguistics<\/em>, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin-New York.<\/p>\n

McKenna Brown, R. et al. 2006. La \u00fctz aw\u00e4ch?: introduction to Kaqchikel Maya language<\/em>. University of Texas Press<\/p>\n

\n

Please see the Atlas socioling\u00fc\u00edstico de pueblos ind\u00edgenas en Am\u00e9rica Latina<\/em><\/a> for a more complete bibliography.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Details collected by UNICEF Data on Kaqchikel Alternative names: Cakchiquel Where it is spoken: Guatemala. Most Kaqchikel speakers live in the volcanic region of the department of Chimaltenango, near Lake Atitl\u00e1n, as well as in the neighbouring departments of Sacatep\u00e9quez, Solol\u00e1, Suchitep\u00e9quez and in the capital, Guatemala City. There are also some Kaqchikel speakers in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-61971","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nKaqchikel - Sorosoro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kaqchikel - Sorosoro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Details collected by UNICEF Data on Kaqchikel Alternative names: Cakchiquel Where it is spoken: Guatemala. Most Kaqchikel speakers live in the volcanic region of the department of Chimaltenango, near Lake Atitl\u00e1n, as well as in the neighbouring departments of Sacatep\u00e9quez, Solol\u00e1, Suchitep\u00e9quez and in the capital, Guatemala City. There are also some Kaqchikel speakers in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sorosoro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T13:35:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/\",\"name\":\"Kaqchikel - Sorosoro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-29T13:21:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-29T13:35:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kaqchikel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Sorosoro\",\"description\":\"Pour que vivent les langues du monde !\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kaqchikel - Sorosoro","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kaqchikel - Sorosoro","og_description":"Details collected by UNICEF Data on Kaqchikel Alternative names: Cakchiquel Where it is spoken: Guatemala. Most Kaqchikel speakers live in the volcanic region of the department of Chimaltenango, near Lake Atitl\u00e1n, as well as in the neighbouring departments of Sacatep\u00e9quez, Solol\u00e1, Suchitep\u00e9quez and in the capital, Guatemala City. There are also some Kaqchikel speakers in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/","og_site_name":"Sorosoro","article_modified_time":"2011-11-29T13:35:45+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/","name":"Kaqchikel - Sorosoro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-29T13:21:31+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-29T13:35:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/kaqchikel\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kaqchikel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/","name":"Sorosoro","description":"Pour que vivent les langues du monde !","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}