Documentation of the Syntax and Specialized Uses of Q’anjob’al (Maya)
| Language | Q’anjob’al, Maya |
| Depositor | B’alam Mateo |
| Affiliation | CIESAS, MEXICO |
| Location | Guatemala |
| Collection ID | 0226 |
| Grant ID | IGS0036 |
| Funding Body | |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/a7f985d4-90fb-477e-bffa-aec23274db8f |
Summary of the collection
Q’anjob’al is a Mayan language mainly spoken in Guatemala, with a number of speakers in Mexico and other parts of the world. Language revival efforts are under way to encourage the use of Q’anjob’al teaching and promotional materials.
This collection focuses on the syntax of complex predicates and endangered specialized uses of Q’anjob’al. The syntactic description focuses on complex predicates such as adverbial clauses, secondary predicates, auxiliary verbs, complement clauses, and directionals.
The texts collected include topics such as ceremonial speech (i.e. corn planting, Mayan religion, house building, marriages, etc.) traditional medicine, customary laws, etc. and aspects of verbal art such as story telling, prayer, etc.
Group represented
Maya Q’anjob’al community
Language information
Q’anjob’al is a Mayan language spoken by around 200,000 people in Guatemala, in the south of Mexico and the United States. There are three Q’anjob’alan languages according to Ethnologue: Akateko (ISO-639: knj), Jakalteko (jac), and Q’anjob’al (KJB). Alternate names include: Kanjobal
Collection history
Collection of data was carried out in a 24 month period in Santa Eulalia, Guatemala by a team consisting of Eladio Mateo Toledo and a team of four community members. The project received funding from ELDP (SOAS), NSF (US), and PLFM (Guatemala).
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Mateo, B’alam. 2014. Documentation of the Syntax and Specialized Uses of Q’anjob’al (Maya). Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-0002-C874-D. Accessed on [insert date here].
