Guatemala is home to the largest number of present-day Mayan language speakers, who are spread primarily across Guatemala, southern Mexico, and Belize. Mayan languages represent an expansive language family, not a single language, and there can be significant variety within Mayan languages. Remarkably, even though Spanish is the official language and lingua franca of Guatemala, an estimated 40% to 60% of Guatemalans speak a Mayan language. One of the largest, representing 410,000 people, is Kaqchikel.
If you want Kaqchikel translation services, you’ll generally have to search far and wide—they’re few and far between. Furthermore, the majority of Kaqchikel translation services work with Spanish, not English. After all, rare is the translation firm willing to devote such energy and resources to endangered languages, which are generally not that profitable. TranslationServices.com is willing to devote energy and resources to languages like Kaqchikel, however. We see the value that Kaqchikel has to its people and wish to provide them with the same high-quality translation services that are afforded to their Spanish-speaking compatriots.
You can get started today by requesting a free quote for our Kaqchikel translation services.
The idiosyncrasies of Kaqchikel
The 410,000-odd speakers of Kaqchikel are concentrated in southwestern Guatemala, relatively close to the country’s capital, primarily in the departments of Sololá, Chimaltenango, Sacatepéquez, and Guatemala. Thanks to Guatemala’s bilingual education programs and efforts to revitalize and preserve the country’s 21 Mayan languages, Kaqchikel literacy is on the rise, and the language is gaining a more secure footing.
Like all other Mayan languages, Kaqchikel employs an ergative–absolutive alignment system, wherein the ergative marks transitive subjects and possessors of nouns and the absolutive marks intransitive subjects and transitive objects. Verbs are marked for both the subject and object, and the ergative prefixes differ depending on whether the proceeding letter is a vowel or a consonant. Kaqchikel exhibits a complicated word order system as well, with verb-initial and subject-initial word orders both possible. Word order is determined in part by the definiteness and animacy of the subject and object. Kaqchikel also reduplicates adjectives as an intensifier (e.g., nim [large] becomes nim nim [very large]).
Kaqchikel is complicated—there’s no doubt about that. But don’t worry, because our Kaqchikel translators know precisely how to overcome the hurdles of this beautiful Mayan language.
High-quality Kaqchikel translation services for you
Our team is comprised of passionate Kaqchikel translators who are proud to translate to and from their native Mayan language. Translation from Kaqchikel to English is powerful in disseminating knowledge and awareness of the Kaqchikel people and culture, and translation from English to Kaqchikel is an impactful way to revitalize the language and foster its continued use into the future. This means our translators are equipped to translate historical documents and traditional literature from Kaqchikel to English as well as academic questionnaires, promotional business content, and creative works such as books, poems, games, and websites from English to Kaqchikel.
Regardless of your Kaqchikel translation needs, send us a message today. We’ll happily discuss how we can help you.