Q'anjob'al is a Mayan language spoken primarily in Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 and part of Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. According to 1998 estimates compiled by SIL International

SIL International

SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...

 in Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

, there were approximately 77,700 native speakers, primarily in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala. Q'anjob'al is a member of the Q'anjob'alan branch of the Mayan language family. The Mayan language family includes 31 languages, two of which are now extinct. The Q'anjob'alan branch includes not only Q'anjob'al itself but also Chuj

Chuj language

Chuj is one of the Mayan languages spoken by around 40,000 people in Guatemala and 10,000 in Mexico. Chuj together with the languages of Tojolab'al, Mocho', Akateko, Q'anjob'al and Popti' form the western branch of the Mayan family of languages. Chuj created its own branch about 21 centuries ago...

, Akatek

Akatek language

Akatek is a Mayan language spoken by the Akatek people primarily in the Huehuetenango Department, Guatemala in and around the municipalities of Concepción Huista, Nentón, San Miguel Acatán, San Rafael La Independencia and San Sebastián Coatán. A number of speakers also live in Chiapas, Mexico...

, and Jakaltek

Jakaltek language

The Jakaltek language is a Mayan language of Guatemala spoken by around 90,000 Jakaltek people in the department of Huehuetenango and the adjoining part of Chiapas in southern Mexico...

, also spoken in Guatemala. The Q'anjob'alan languages are noted for being among the most conservative of the Mayan language family, although they do include some interesting innovations.

Phonology

Q'anjob'al consists of 26 consonant sounds and 5 vowel sounds. The letters of the alphabet are as follows:

a, b', ch, ch', d, e, h, i, j, k, k', l, m, n, o, p, q, q', r, s, t, t', tx, tx', tz, tz', u, w, x, xh, y, and ' (glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...

).

The ' in ch', k', q', t', tx', and tz' represents an ejective or glottalic egressive, i.e., the consonant is accompanied by a puff of air from the glottis. The letter r in Q'anjob'al has a limited distribution. It is used mostly in borrowings, primarily in words borrowed from Spanish, such as roxax, rose, from Spanish 'rosa'. It is also used in affect and positional words like k'arari 'noise of an old engine or the like', jeran 'to be in a broken position/form'. The letters tx and x represent retroflex consonant

Retroflex consonant

A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

s, pronounced with the tongue curled backward in the mouth. It is believed such retroflection in Q'anjob'al is an influence from the Mamean Mayan languages

Mam language

Mam is a Mayan language with almost 480,000 speakers as of 2002, spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango and San Marcos....

.

In the charts below, each of the Q'anjob'al phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the standard orthography.

Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...	i		u
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...	e		o
Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...		a

Consonants

	Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...		Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...		Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate...		Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...		Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....		Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...		Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
	plain	implosive Implosive consonant Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...	plain	ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...	plain	ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...	plain	ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...	plain	ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...	plain	implosive Implosive consonant Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	m		n
Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...	p	ɓ	t	tʼ					k	kʼ	q	q' /ʠ/	' /ʔ/
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...			tz   /ts/	tz'   /tsʼ/	ch   /tʃ/	ch'   /tʃʼ/	tx   /tʂ/	tx'   /tʂʼ/
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...			s		xh /ʃ/		x /ʂ/		j   /x/
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...	w		l		y   /j/				w
Tap			r /ɾ/

Stress

Primary stress in Q'anjob'al is fairly simple. Words in isolation and in final phrase boundaries bear stress on the last syllable. However, words within a phrasal unit (not in final phrase boundary) bear stress on their first syllable.

Morphology and syntax

As in all Mayan languages, Q'anjob'al classifies all verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s as either inherently intransitive (calling up only one argument) or as inherently transitive (calling up two arguments). Q'anjob'al is an ergative–absolutive language, in which the subject

Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...

, of a transitive verb

Transitive verb

In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...

 takes an ergative affix, while the subject of an intransitive verb

Intransitive verb

In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....

, as well as the object

Object (grammar)

An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...

 of a transitive verb, take an absolutive affix. Ergative affixes are also used for possession. There are two sets of affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

es for ergative. The first set is used for those verbal roots beginning with a consonant, and the second set is used for those beginning with a vowel. However, there is only one set of absolutive affixes with two variations: pronounced like free words or attached to something else.

Below is the table of ergative prefixes for verbal roots beginning with a consonant:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	hin-	ko-
2nd person	ha-	he-
3rd person	s-/Ø-	s-/Ø-

Ergative prefixes for verbal roots beginning with a vowel:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	w-	j-
2nd person	h-	hey-
3rd person	y-	y-

Absolutive affixes when attached to preceding sounds:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	-in	-on
2nd person	-ach	-ex
3rd person	-0	-0...(heb')

Absolutive affixes not attached to a preceding sound (they take an h):

	Singular	Plural
1st person	hin	hon
2nd person	hach	hex
3rd person	0	0...(heb')

Note that the third person absolutive affix is 0, i.e., unmarked or empty.

Examples:

transitive (ergative)

X-0-inmaq' naq winaq. (Mateo 2008: p.c.)

COMP-A3S-E1S-hit CL:masc man

'I hit the man.'

intransitive (absolutive)

X-in way-i. (Mateo 2008: p.c.)

COMP-A1S sleep-STAT

'I slept.'

possessive (ergative)

before vowel:

w-aqan

E1S-foot

'my foot'

before consonant:

s-q'ab

E3S-hand

'his/her hand'

However, while verbs are classified as either ergative or absolutive and take their own respective sets of pronoun affixes, this rule is altered in certain cases, such as when a verb becomes progressive:

Ch-in kuy-w-i.

INC-A1S study-SFX-STAT

'I study'.

but,

Ipan hin-kuy-w-i.

PROG E1S-study-SFX-STAT

'I am studying'.

In Q'anjob'al, aspect

Grammatical aspect

In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...

 (whether an action has been completed or not) is more important than tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

. Thus, in most utterances, one will indicate whether the action is incompletive, or whether it is completed, or may happen in the future, in which case it is considered 'unreal', or of irrealis mood, the event still only in the realm of thought or imagination.

incompletive

Ch(i) is used to indicate that an event is incomplete or ongoing at some time:

Chi-0 toj naq unin b'ay y-atut-al kuy-oj.

INC-A3S go CL:masc child to E3S-house-ABS study-NZR

'The boy goes to school'.

Completive

Max or x- (both forms are used in free variation) are used to indicate that an event is complete:

Max-ex mulnaj-i.

COM-A2P work-STAT

'You (pl.) worked.'

X-0 way-i.

COM-A3S sleep-STAT

'He/she slept.'

Future/Irrealis

The prefix hoq- with the suffix -oq are used to indicate that the event spoken of has not yet happened, but remains only in the realm of the 'unreal' with only the potential for occurrence in the future:

Hoq-0 saqch-oq heb.

IRR-A3 play-IRR A3P

'They will play.'

Negative

Negative particles include k'am and manaq:

K'am chi-0 y-oche-j.

NEG INC-A3S E3S-want-SFX

'He/she doesn't want it.'

Manaq ix chi-0 toj kuy-oj.

NEG she INC-A3S go study-NOM

'It is not she who goes to study.'

Interrogative

Questions can be formed simply by using rising intonation with declarative syntax:

Ch-0-oche-j cha-ch kanal-w-i w-etoq?

INC-A3S-E2S-SFX INC-A2S dance-SFX-STAT E1S-with

'Do you want to dance with me?'

There is also a question particle, mi:

Watx' mi ha-kul?

good INTER E2S-stomach

'Is your stomach good?'

(Used as common form of greeting, like English 'How are you?')

Affixation

Many different affixes are used in Q'anjob'al, both prefixes and suffixes. Among these are aj-, used to denote the doer or leader of an action: ajtz'ib, 'writer' (< tz'ib, 'write'), ajb'e, 'spiritual guide' (< b'e, 'road'); -b'al, used to indicate the location where something happens: tzomb'al, 'market' (< tzon, 'buy'); -al, -alil, -il, used to derive abstract nouns from adjectives, adverbs, numerals, transitive verb roots, and nouns: syalixhal, 'his/her smallness' (< yalixh, 'small'); swinaqil, 'husband' (< winaq, 'man'); -k'ulal, to derive nouns from intransitive verbs, adjectives, other nouns, etc.: watxk'ulal, 'friendliness'; -oj, nominalizer, turning verbs into nouns: kuyoj, 'studying' (< kuy, 'study').

Word order

Q'anjob'al has a fixed word order

Word order

In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...

. It follows a verb–subject–object (VSO) word order. All changes to this word order are driven by pragmatic or syntactic factors like focus, negation, interrogation, relativization, etc. These are subject to an ergative–absolutive pattern where arguments cross-referenced by ergative affixes must become absolutives prior to their fronting (focus, negation, etc.). This results in some possible subject–verb (SV), object–verb–subject (OVS) orders. However SVO,SOV or OSV are not possible (or, at least, not attested in any known corpus).

Classifiers

Some Q’anjob’al nouns require that certain classifiers be used with them. Among these are no (animals), te (trees/wood), ix (female), naq (male), ch'en (stone/metal), xim (corn), and an (plants).

no’ chej

CL-animal horse

'the horse'

te’ na

CL-wood house

'the house'

ix unin

CL-fem child (girl)

'the girl'

naq unin

CL-masc child (boy)

'the boy'

ch’en tumin

CL-metal money

'the money'

an kaq

CL-plant flower

'the flower'

Reduplication

Reduplication, or duplication of a root word, is a minor process in the formation of Q'anjob'al vocabulary, as in the following:

tx'itam

'pig'

(onomatopoeic: based on the sound it makes)

pux-pux

'belly of animal'

tx'a-tx'a

'chewing gum'

Vocabulary

Q'anjob'al consists of groups of root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

s that can take affixes. Words are traditionally classified as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, intransitive

Intransitive verb

In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....

 and transitive

Transitive verb

In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...

 verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s, particle

Grammatical particle

In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...

s, and positionals. Positionals are a group of roots which cannot function as words on their own; in combination with affixes they are used to describe relationships of position and location. Particles are words that do not take affixes; they mostly function in adverbial roles, and include such things as interrogative particles, affirmative/negative words, markers of time and location, conjunctions

Grammatical conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...

, prepositions and demonstrative

Demonstrative

In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...

s.

Locatives are often formed by placing a noun after a possessed body-part term: s-ti b'e, 'edge of the road' < 'its-mouth road' and s-jolom witz, 'mountaintop' or 'summit' < 'its-head mountain'. Similarly, compound nouns may be formed by placing a noun after another possessed noun: y-atutal kuyoj, 'school' < 'its-house studying'.

Numbers

jun kab' oxeb' kaneb' oyeb' waqeb' uqeb' waxaqeb' b'aloneb' lajoneb' usluk'eb' kab'lajoneb' oxlajuneb' kanlajoneb' holajoneb' waqlajoneb' uqlajoneb' waxaqlajoneb' balonlajuneb' junk'al

jun skak'al kab' skak'al oxeb' skak'al kaneb' skak'al oyeb skak'al waqeb' skak'al uqeb' skak'al waxaqeb' skak'al b'aloneb' skak'al lajoneb' skak'al usluk'eb' skak'al kab'lajoneb' skak'al oxlajuneb' skak'al kanlajoneb' skak'al holajoneb' skak'al waqlajoneb' skak'al uqlajoneb' skak'al waxaqlajoneb' skak'al balonlajuneb' skak'al kak'al

60 oxk'al 3x20 80 kank'al 100 ok'al 120 waqk'al 140 uqk'al 160 waxaqk'al 180 balonlajonk'al 200 lajunk'al 400 junk'alwinaq 800 kak'alwinaq 2000 ok'alwinaq

Common words

anima, person

ch'en, rock/stone

ej, water/river

ix, woman

ixim, corn

kaq, flower

k'u, sun/day

mam, father

mis, cat

na, house (also atut)

pat, tortilla

sat kan, sky (lit. snake's eye)

son, marimba

te, tree

tx'i, dog

tx'otx, earth/land

tx'utx, mother

unin, child

waykan, star

winaq, man

witz, mountain

xajaw, moon/month

Abbreviations used

A1S absolutive first person singular

A1P absolutive first person plural

ABS abstractivizer

CL classifier

COM complete

E1S ergative first person singular

E1P ergative first person plural

INC incomplete

INT interrogative

IRR irrealis

NEG negative

NZR nominalizer

PL plural

PROG progressive

SFX suffix

STAT status

External links

• Comunidad Lingüística Q'anjob'al, community/sub-committee for Q'anjob'al at Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala [ALMG]