Mayan language spoken in Guatemala
Poqomchiʼ (Pokomchi: Poqomchiiʼ ) 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 Aldea Belejú, in the municipality of Chicamán (El Quiché ), which borders Alta Verapaz.[ 2]
Distribution
Poqomam is spoken in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz , Baja Verapaz , and El Quiché departments (Variación Dialectal en Poqom, 2000 ).
Alta Verapaz
Panzós (in the community of San Vicente II)
La Tinta
Tucurú
Tamahú
Tactic
Santa Cruz Verapaz
San Cristóbal Verapaz
El Quiché
Chicamán (in the aldea of Belejú)
Baja Verapaz
Purulhá (in the community of Ribalcó)
Phonology
Consonants
In Western Poqomchi', /ɓ/ is non-existent and a glottalized /wʼ/ occurs in alteration. Sometimes an allophone of /wʼ/ can be heard as [mʼ ] .
/pʼ/ mainly exists among the western dialects.
/r/ can be heard as a flap sound [ɾ ] when occurring word-medially.
If a glottal sound precedes /l/ , it is then heard as a voiceless fricative [ɬ ] .
Vowels
Short allophones of vowels /i/ , /a o/ can be heard as [ɪ ] , [ə ] .
Notes
References
Spanne, Joan (2009-02-19). "ISO 639-3 Change Requests Series 2008: Summary of Outcomes" (PDF) . SIL International . Retrieved 2009-03-09 .
Mariscal, David (2015). "Mayan-poqomchi´ identity in its spiritual and religious manifestations". Revista De Estudios Sociales.
Mariscal, David (2014). "Ethnic Relations between the Q́eqchí and Poqomchí of Guatemala: Preservation, Transculturation and Mutual Influence". Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences.
Mó Isém, Romelia (2007). "Rutoxl qʼorik pan Poqomchiʼ Derivación de palabras Poqomchiʼ". Guatemala: Cholsamaj.
Mora-Marín, D. F. (2003). "Historical Reconstruction of Mayan Applicative and Antidative Constructions". International Journal of American Linguistics . 69 (2): 186–228. doi :10.1086/379684 . S2CID 144204931 .
Wichmann, S.; Brown, C. H. (2003). "Contact among Some Mayan Languages: Inferences from Loanwords". Anthropological Linguistics . JSTOR 30028873 .
Weichel, Lindsay A. (2006). "The grammatical structure of Western Pokomchi' ". University of Regina.
External links
Official language Indigenous languages
Sign languages