Akatek language

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Mayan language spoken in Mexico and Guatemala

title: "Akatek language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mayan-languages", "agglutinative-languages", "verb–object–subject-languages", "indigenous-languages-of-central-america", "languages-of-guatemala", "huehuetenango-department", "languages-of-mexico", "indigenous-languages-of-mexico"] description: "Mayan language spoken in Mexico and Guatemala" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akatek_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mayan language spoken in Mexico and Guatemala ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Akatek
altname	Acateco, Western Kanjobal
states	Guatemala
Mexico
region	Huehuetenango
Chiapas
ethnicity	66,000 Akateko in Guatemala (2019 census)
speakers	in Guatemala
date	2011 – 2019 census
ref	e24
speakers2	in Mexico (2020 census)
familycolor	Mayan
fam1	Mayan
fam2	Qʼanjobalan–Chujean
fam3	Qʼanjobalan
fam4	Kanjobal–Jacaltec
minority	Mexico
Guatemala
iso3	knj
iso3comment	Western Kanjobal
glotto	west2635
glottorefname	Akateko
notice	IPA
nativename	Kuti', q'anub'al'
agency	Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas

| | script | Latin | ::

Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala | script = Latin

Akatek is a Mayan language spoken by the Akateko people primarily in the Huehuetenango Department, Guatemala in and around the municipalities of Concepción Huista, Nentón, San Miguel Acatán, San Rafael La Independencia and San Sebastián Coatán. A number of speakers also live in Chiapas, Mexico. It is a living language with 58,600 speakers in 1998, of which 48,500 live in Guatemala and the remaining in Mexico. Alternate spellings for the language include Akatec, Akateko, and Akateco. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Huehuetenango_in_Guatemala.svg" caption="[[Huehuetenango Department]] highlighted in red on a map of Guatemala"] ::

Akateko stems from the Q'anjob'alan branch, making it closely related to Q’anjob’al and Chuj.

History

Akateko was regarded as a dialect of the Qʼanjobʼal language until the 1970s, when linguists realized that it has a distinct grammar from that of Qʼanjobʼal. That it has been thought a dialect of Qʼanjobʼal is reflected in the many names Akateko has had through time. One of its primary names before it was named Akateko was Ti Western Qʼanjobʼal, but it has also been called Conob and various names including Qʼanjobʼal and the municipality where it is spoken.

Classifiers in Akatek

Akateko, Q’anjob’al and Chuj all utilize similar classifiers to organize nouns. Nouns are divided into three categories: humans, animals and inanimate objects and there is no generic classifier.

Akatek has 14 nominal classifiers.

Grammar

An interesting aspect of Akateko grammar, which is also present in most other Qʼanjobalan languages, is the use of directional morphemes, which appear as enclitics. These morphemes make it possible for the speaker to talk about movement and direction in space without pointing or using other gestures. Consider the stative verb to be, which can appear as existing inwards, existing towards there, away from the speaker and listener and existing from the inside out, using different enclitics.

Standard verb roots are classified in multiple categories at once.

Phonology

Vowels

Akatek has 5 vowels:

::data[format=table]

Front	Back	Unrounded	Rounded	Close	Close-mid	Open



::

Vowel length is distinctive, so one can say that the total number of vowels is 10. These long vowels are a unique and recent sound change from Q'anjob'al.

Consonants

Akatek has 24 consonants, including the glottal stop:

::data[format=table]

Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal	Nasal	Plosive	Plain	Ejective	Implosive	Affricate	Plain	Ejective	Fricative	Tap	Approximant









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is realized as word-finally, everywhere else. : Examples: pom copal, xopan hollow, sip tick

is realized as word-finally, everywhere else. : Examples: kaapʼ two, mooke tinaja, chʼok zanate

is realized as before plosive consonants, everywhere else. : Examples: teʼ tree, satkan sky, pʼit song

is realized as word-finally, everywhere else. : Examples: kaapʼ two, pʼeyʼpʼal the walking (thing)

is realized as word-initially, everywhere else. : Examples: xos egg, ajane foot

is realized as before and , but before alveolar and velar consonants, everywhere else. : Examples: Examples: inpʼit my song, ante to cure, naa house

References

[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
Cabral, Ernesto Díaz Couder. (2001). "Culturas e interculturalidad en Guatemala".
[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=knj Ethnologue]
Law, Danny. (2020). "Pattern borrowing, linguistic similarity, and new categories: Numeral classifiers in Mayan". Spring Nature.
Maldonado, Roberto Zavala. (1992). "Acateco de la frontera sur".
Zavala, Roberto. (2000). "Systems of Nominal Classifiers: Multiple classifier systems in Akatek (Mayan).". Cambridge University Press.
Henderson, Robert. (2016). "Mayan Semantics". Language and Linguistics Compass.
Bennett, Ryan. (2016). "Mayan phonology". Language and Linguistics Compass.

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