| Akatek | |
|---|---|
| Acateco, Western Kanjobal | |
| Kuti', q'anub'al' | |
| Native to | Guatemala Mexico |
| Region | Huehuetenango Chiapas |
| Ethnicity | 66,000Akateko in Guatemala (2019 census) |
Native speakers | 65,000 in Guatemala (2011 – 2019 census)[1] 2,900 in Mexico (2020 census)[2] |
Mayan
| |
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | knj Western Kanjobal |
| Glottolog | west2635 |
| ELP | Akateko |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Akatek is aMayan language spoken by theAkateko people primarily in theHuehuetenango Department,Guatemala in and around the municipalities ofConcepción Huista,Nentón,San Miguel Acatán,San Rafael La Independencia andSan Sebastián Coatán.[3] A number of speakers also live inChiapas,Mexico. It is a living language with 58,600 speakers in 1998, of which 48,500 live inGuatemala and the remaining inMexico.[4] Alternate spellings for the language includeAkatec,Akateko, andAkateco.
Akateko stems from the Q'anjob'alan branch, making it closely related toQ’anjob’al andChuj.[5]
Akateko was regarded as a dialect of theQʼanjobʼal language until the 1970s, whenlinguists realized that it has a distinctgrammar from that of Qʼanjobʼal.[6] That it has been thought a dialect of Qʼanjobʼal is reflected in the many names Akateko has had through time. One of its primary names before it was named Akateko wasTiWestern Qʼanjobʼal, but it has also been calledConob and various names includingQʼanjobʼal and the municipality where it is spoken.
Akateko, Q’anjob’al and Chuj all utilize similar classifiers to organizenouns. Nouns are divided into three categories: humans, animals and inanimate objects and there is no generic classifier.[5][7]
Akatek has 14 nominal classifiers.[7]
An interesting aspect of Akatekogrammar, which is also present in most other Qʼanjobalan languages, is the use ofdirectional morphemes, which appear asenclitics. These morphemes make it possible for the speaker to talk about movement and direction in space without pointing or using other gestures. Consider thestative verb[ʔej]to be, which can appear as[ʔejʔok]existing inwards,[ʔejtok]existing towards there, away from the speaker and listener and[ʔeːltox]existing from the inside out, using different enclitics.
Standard verb roots are classified in multiple categories at once.[8]
Akatek has 5vowels:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Vowel length is distinctive, so one can say that the total number of vowels is 10. These long vowels are a unique and recent sound change from Q'anjob'al.[9]
Akatek has 24consonants, including theglottal stop:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | |||||||
| Plosive | Plain | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | q⟨q⟩ | ʔ⟨’⟩ | |||
| Ejective | tʼ⟨tʼ⟩ | kʼ⟨kʼ⟩ | qʼ⟨qʼ⟩ | ||||||
| Implosive | ɓ⟨bʼ⟩ | ||||||||
| Affricate | Plain | t͡s⟨tz⟩ | t͡ʃ⟨ch⟩ | ʈ͡ʂ⟨tx⟩ | |||||
| Ejective | t͡sʼ⟨tzʼ⟩ | t͡ʃʼ⟨chʼ⟩ | ʈ͡ʂʼ⟨txʼ⟩ | ||||||
| Fricative | s⟨s⟩ | ʃ⟨xh⟩ | ʂ⟨x⟩ | x⟨j⟩ | |||||
| Tap | ɾ⟨r⟩ | ||||||||
| Approximant | w⟨w⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | ||||||
/p/ is realized as[pʰ] word-finally,[p] everywhere else.
/k/ is realized as[kʰ] word-finally,[k] everywhere else.
/t/ is realized as[tʰ] beforeplosive consonants,[t] everywhere else.
/ɓ/ is realized as[ɓ̥] word-finally,[ɓ] everywhere else.
/x/ is realized as[h] word-initially,[x] everywhere else.
/n/ is realized as[m] before/p/ and/ɓ/, but[ŋ] beforealveolar andvelar consonants,[n] everywhere else.
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