Poqomchiʼ

     Is a Mayan language spoken by the Poqomchiʼ Maya of Guatemala, and is very closely related to Poqomam. Its two main dialects, eastern and western, were spoken by 90,000 or so people in the year 2000, in Purulhá, Baja Verapaz, and in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. It is also the predominant language in the municipality of Chicamán (El Quiché), which borders Alta Verapaz.

     Poqomchiʼ is also known as Pocomchí, Poconchí, Pokomchí, Pokonchí, Tactic Pokomchí, Pokomchi or Poqomchii. There are two main dialects: Eastern Poqomchiʼ and Western Poqomchiʼ.

Poqomchiʼ is officially recognized in Guatemala and is supported by the Academy of Mayan Languages. It is written with the Latin alphabet, taught in primary schools, and is used in some literature.

 

 

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

Please contact us with any job or project inquiries.

www.asociadostrapaga.com

legal@asociadostrapaga.com

+502 55717516

 Ixil

 

     Is a Mayan language spoken by around 70,000 people in Guatemala. There are three main varieties of Ixil: Chajul, Nebaj, and San Juan Cotzal. Some linguists consider them to be three distinct languages, while others consider them dialects of a single Ixil language. Chajul and Nebaj Ixil use VSO (verb-subject-order) word order while Ixil de San Juan Cotzal uses VOS.

     According to historical linguistic studies Ixil emerged as a separate language sometime around the year 500AD. It is the primary language of the Ixil people, which comprises the three towns of San Juan Cotzal, Santa Maria Nebaj, and San Gaspar Chajul in the Guatemalan highlands. There is also an Ixil speaking migrant population in Guatemala City and the United States. Although there are slight differences in vocabulary in the dialects spoken by people in the three different Ixil towns, they are all mutually intelligible and should be considered dialects of a single language.

 

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

Please contact us with any job or project inquiries.

www.asociadostrapaga.com

legal@asociadostrapaga.com

+502 55717516

 

 Zapoteco

Zapotec is the name not of a single language, but of a group of 58 languages that, together with related Chatino group, belongs to the Otomanguean linguistic stock. Zapotec is one of the largest families in the Oto-Manguean stock in terms of the number of speakers since the Zapotecs are the third largest indigenous ethnic group in Mexico, after the Nahua and the Mayan peoples. Zapotec has more varieties than any other member of the Otomanguean linguistic stock (Ethnologue) with almost as many varieties as there are pueblos in which it is spoken.

There are approximately 450,000 speakers of Zapotec most of whom live in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. While most are proficient in Spanish, there are also many who speak only one or more varieties of their native Zapotec. In some areas, Zapotec is used in local administration, commerce, literature, and religious services. In other areas, the language is on the brink of extinction, e.g., Zapotec Asunción Mixtepec.

Of the 58 varieties of Zapotech listed by Ethnologue, 49 have fewer than 10,000 speakers. Most have only from several hundred to several thousand speakers. Several are on the brink of extinction. The most populous varieties of Zapotec are listed below.

Dialects

The classification of Zapotec varieties is made difficult by the fact that most of them have several names and many have not been well studied. The 58 varieties of Zapotec fall into several broad groups:

-          Northern Zapotec (Zapoteco de la Sierra Norte) spoken in the northern mountainous region of Oaxaca

-          Valley Zapotec spoken in the Valley of Oaxaca

-          Southern Zapotec (Zapoteco de la Sierra Sur) spoken in the Southern Sierra Madres mountain ranges of Oaxaca,

-          Isthmus Zapotec spoken in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Although all varieties of Zapotec share some basic phonological and structural similarities, there are so many differences between/among them, that 40 of them are considered to be mutually unintelligible.

Vowels

Many Zapotec varieties have five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that can differentiate word meaning. They also have a variety of diphthongs, e.g., /ai/, /au/, /ei/, /eu/, /ia/, /ie/, /iu/, /ua/, /ue/, /ei/.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

 

Depending on the variety, vowels can appear in four different shapes: plain, creaky, breathy, or checked. Not all varieties of Zapotec have all four types.

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

Please contact us with any job or project inquiries.

+502 55717516

https://asociadostrapaga.com/home/

legal@asociadostrapaga.com

opi@asociadostrapaga.com

 Triqui

The Triqui or Trique, languages are a family of Oto-Manguean spoken by 30,000 Trique people of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and the state of Baja California in 2007 (due to recent population movements). They are also spoken by 5,000 immigrants to the United States. Triqui languages belong to the Mixtecan branch together with the Mixtec languages and Cuicatec.

-        - Triqui de Copala spoken by 15,000 people (1990 census) in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca (and recently due to migrations in the San Quintín valley, Baja California).

-          - Triqui de San Andrés Chicahuaxtla spoken by 6,000 people in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca.

-          - Triqui de San Martín Itunyoso spoken by 2,000 people (1983 survey) in San Martín Itunyoso, Oaxaca.

Tones

All varieties of Triqui are tonal and have complex phonologies. The tone system of Copala Triqui is the best described and has eight tones.

Tones in Triqui languages are typically written with superscript numbers, so that chraa ⁵  'river' indicates the syllable chraa with the highest (5) tone, while cha ³na¹ 'woman' has the middle (3) tone on the first syllable and the lowest (1) tone on the second syllable.

Of the Triqui languages, the Copala dialect has undergone the most vowel loss, with many non-final syllables losing their vowels. The result, as in many other Oto-Manguean languages, is a complex set of consonant clusters. So, for instance, the word si⁵kuj⁵ 'cow' in Itunyoso Triqui corresponds to skuj⁵ in Copala Triqui.

The tonal phonology of other Triqui languages is more complex than Copala Triqui. The tone system of Itunyoso Triqui has nine tones. The tone system of Chicahuaxtla Triqui has at least 10 tones but may have as many as 16.

 

Orthography

Triqui has been written in a number of different orthographies, depending on the intended audience. Linguists typically write the language with all tones fully marked and all phonemes represented. However, in works intended for native speakers of Triqui, a practical orthography is often used with a somewhat simpler representation.

 

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

Please contact us with any job or project inquiries.

+502 55717516

https://asociadostrapaga.com/home/

legal@asociadostrapaga.com

opi@asociadostrapaga.com