The average English native speaker may not be aware, but Guatemala features the largest proportion of indigenous language speakers in Central America. Of course, Spanish is the primary language and lingua franca of the country, and it is the mother tongue of more than half the population—but close to half speak an indigenous language natively. Most of Guatemala’s indigenous languages are Mayan languages, and the Guatemalan government is generally supportive of its indigenous tongues. This is the case for Ch’orti’.
Ch’orti’ is a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala and to a much lesser extent in Honduras. The Guatemalan government has promoted programs for learning and teaching Ch’orti’, but currently, the language is still considered endangered, and unfortunately, that means it’s not easy to find high-quality Ch’orti’ translation services (or any translation services, for that matter). TranslationServices.com is here to solve that problem. We understand how important the Ch’orti’ language is to the Ch’orti’ people, and so we’re proud to present our professional Ch’orti’ translation services.
You can see a free quote for our Ch’orti’ translation services if you send us a message and request one.
Ch’orti’ is a fascinating language.
Ch’orti’ is considered the modern descendant of the ancient Mayan language Ch’olan, historically spoken in the Copán region in western Honduras. However, due to the assimilation policy in Honduras, few Ch’orti’ speakers remain in the country—most are on the other side of the border in Guatemala.
Ch’orti’ features a number of grammatical concepts that are completely foreign to English speakers. The language is agglutinative, with nouns and verbs undergoing a high degree of inflection. Both the subject and object are marked on verbs, rendering the use of explicit, standalone pronouns redundant. Ch’orti’ has three sets of pronominal affixes that it adds to verbs—ergative, absolutive, and nominative. The ergative affixes are prefixes, with different versions depending on whether the next letter is a consonant or a vowel, and are used to mark the agent in transitive sentences and the possessor of nouns. The absolutive set consists of suffixes that mark the object of transitive sentences or the subject of intransitive sentences in the completive aspect. Finally, the nominative set features prefixes that indicate the subject of intransitive sentences in the incompletive aspect.
Ch’orti’ distinguishes itself from most Mayan languages by using three pronominal affix sets—most Mayan languages only have two. But despite the language’s difficulties, our Ch’orti’ translators are proud to provide translation services.
To or from Ch’orti’: it’s your choice
Do you want translation from Ch’orti’ to English or from English to Ch’orti’? We can handle both. This means we can help historians translating old documents and those translating Ch’orti’ literature to spread Ch’orti’ culture. It also means we can assist scholars or government agencies looking to translate questionnaires into Ch’orti’ as well as content creators who’d like to make their works available in Ch’orti’. Translating books, poems, games, websites, and apps are superb ways to help endangered languages cement a strong footing in the modern world.
If you need Ch’orti’ translation services, message us now. We’ll proudly help you translate to and from this proud Mayan language.