Qʼeqchiʼ

    This Mayan language is spoken in Guatemala by about 500,000 people and Belize Q'eqchi' speakers are found mainly in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Petén, Izabal, Baja Verapaz, and El Quiché of Guatemala, and in the Toledo district of Belize.

    Q’eqchi’ is a Mayan language of the Eastern Mayan K’ichean (formerly spelled Quichean) branch. The formal classification is: Proto-Maya/ Eastern Mayan/ K’ichean-Mamean/ Q’eqchi’ (Campbell and Kaufman 1985). They are the predominant Maya group in the central highlands and northern lowlands of Guatemala.

    Before the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in the 1520s, Qʼeqchiʼ settlements were concentrated in what are now the departments of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. Over the course of the succeeding centuries a series of land displacements, resettlements, persecutions and migrations resulted in a wider dispersal of Qʼeqchiʼ communities into other regions of Guatemala (Izabal, Petén, El Quiché), southern Belize (Toledo District), and smaller numbers in southern Mexico (Chiapas, Campeche). While most notably present in northern Alta Verapaz and southern Petén, contemporary Qʼeqchiʼ language-speakers are the most widely spread geographically of all Maya peoples in Guatemala.

 

At Trápaga Asociados – Interpretation & Translation Agency, we work with all Mayan languages including Qʼeqchiʼ.

Please contact us with any job or project inquiries.

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