Quick—how many languages are spoken in Guatemala? Most people could only name Spanish. But in reality, 24 languages are spoken across the Central American country, 21 of which come from the Mayan language family. While most of the population speaks Spanish and uses it to communicate with people from other parts of the country, the native language of a whopping 46% of Guatemalans is an indigenous language. One of those languages is Itza’.
Itza’ is one of the smaller languages spoken in Guatemala—estimates range from a few hundred to one thousand speakers. The language is critically endangered, although the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala is working to revitalize and preserve Itza’ and Guatemala’s 20 other Mayan languages. However, this doesn’t change the fact that most translation companies don’t work with critically endangered languages. But just because a language is critically endangered doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. That’s why we at TranslationServices.com are proudly announcing our Itza’ translation team.
Why not get in touch now and ask about a quote for Itza’ translation? Quotes are entirely free!
Let’s learn more about the Itza’ language.
Itza’ has a rich history—it was the administrative language across most of the Yucatán Peninsula when the pre-Columbian city of Chichen Itza was dominant. The Itza’ people also controlled the last independent Maya country in Mesoamerica, lasting until 1697. However, the Guatemalan government banned Itza’ in the 1930s, which caused a dramatic drop in the number of speakers. Today, a small group of Itza’ speakers remain in San José, a municipality in the department of Petén.
Itza’ features split ergativity in its ergative–absolutive alignment, with both the subject and object marked on verbs. Ergative markers are used for all transitive subjects and intransitive subjects in the imperfective aspect, while absolutive markers are applied for all objects, as well as intransitive subjects in the perfective aspect and dependent clauses. Verbal tense is determined through aspect and mood rather than explicit tense markers. The default word order of Itza’ is verb-object-subject, which is exhibited by only around 3% of global languages, although all other word orders are also possible, particularly through topicalization, where a word is marked with a suffix and moved to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis.
We won’t pretend that Itza’ is an easy language. But if you’re looking for Itza’ translation services, don’t worry—our translators can effortlessly overcome the hurdles of Itza’ translation.
We can translate anything to or from Itza’.
Our Itza’ translators are passionate about their language and love to help spread Itza’ culture abroad or increase the amount of content in the Itza’ language. So, if you have a historical document or traditional Itza’-language story you’d like to share, why not engage our team of translators? We’re also happy to work with researchers who wish to survey Itza’ speakers in their native language, or government agencies concerned with language revitalization activities. We can translate content such as books, websites, and apps into Itza’, which is a great way to legitimize a language in the 21st century. Whatever you need regard Itza’ translation, let us handle it.
Tell us in a message what you’re looking for in Itza’ translation, and we’ll do our best to accommodate your needs.