Basic K'ichee' Grammar: 38 Lessons, Revised Edition

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University Press of Colorado, Aug 7, 2017 - Social Science - 265 pages
The K’ichee’an languages—K’ichee’, Kaqchikel, Tz˘utujil, Sakapulteko, Achi, and Sipakapense—occupy a prominent place among the indigenous languages of the Americas because of both their historical significance and the number of speakers (more than one million total). Basic K'ichee' Grammar is an extensive and accurate survey of the principal grammatical structures of K’ichee’. Written in a clear, nontechnical style to facilitate the learning of the language, it is the only K’ichee’ grammar available in English.

A pedagogical rather than a reference grammar, the book is a thorough presentation of the basics of the K’ichee’ Maya language organized around graded grammatical lessons accompanied by drills and exercises. Author James L. Mondloch spent ten years in K’ichee’-speaking communities and provides a complete analysis of the K’ichee’ verb system based on the everyday speech of the people and using a wealth of examples and detailed commentaries on actual usage.

A guide for learning the K’ichee’ language, Basic K'ichee' Grammar is a valuable resource for anyone seeking a speaking and reading knowledge of modern K’ichee’, including linguists, anthropologists, and art historians, as well as nonacademics working in K’ichee’ communities, such as physicians, dentists, community development workers, and educators.
 

Contents

Derived Transitive Verbs in the AgentFocus Antipassive Voice
98
Special Subclasses of Derived Transitive Verbs and the Use of Independent Personal Pronouns for Emphasis
107
The Demonstrative Articles and Relative Pronouns we le ri
113
The Demonstrative Pronouns wa la ri
118
Radical Transitive Verbs in the Active Voice in Incomplete and Completed Aspects and Intensification of Adjectives with alaj
123
The Imperatives of Radical Transitive Verbs in Active Voice and Use of the Progressive Aspect Marker katajinik
130
Radical Transitive Verbs in Simple Passive Voice
137
Radical Transitive Verbs in the Completed Passive and Absolutive Antipassive Voices
143

Simple Intransitive Verbs in Incomplete Aspect
36
Simple Intransitive Verbs in Completed Aspect Declension of the Prepositions umaal and uuk
42
Simple Intransitive Verbs Whose Roots Begin with Vowels
46
Imperative Mood for Simple Intransitive Verbs
49
Negatives
53
The Particle wi u wu with Direction and Location Words
57
Derived Transitive Verbs in Incomplete Aspect and Active Voice with Roots Beginning with Consonants
60
Derived Transitive Verbs in Completed Aspect and Active Voice with Roots Beginning with Consonants
68
Derived Transitive Verbs in Active Voice Whose Roots Begin with a Vowel
71
Imperatives of Derived Transitive Verbs in Active Voice and the Reflexives
75
Derived Transitive Verbs in the Simple Passive Voice
80
Derived Transitive Verbs in Completed Passive Voice
86
Derived Transitive Verbs in the Absolutive Antipassive Voice
91
Radical Transitive Verbs in AgentFocus Antipassive Voice and Use of banik with Spanish Verbs
150
The Negative Imperative and Other Negative Forms
156
Perfect Aspect of Radical and Derived Transitive Verbs in Active and Simple Passive Voices and the Special Case of etamaxik
162
Perfect Aspect of Simple Intransitive Verbs and Radical and Derived Transitive Verbs in Completed Passive Absolutive Antipassive and AgentFocus ...
170
Positional Intransitive Verbs in Incomplete Completed Perfect and Positional Aspects and in the Imperative Mood
179
Nominalized Forms of Simple and Positional Intransitive Verbs and of Radical and Derived Transitive Verbs in Simple Passive and Absolute Antipass...
188
Formation of Person Agents with Simple Intransitive Verbs and with Radical and Derived Transitive Verbs in the Absolutive Antipassive Voices and t...
197
Formation of Nouns from Adjectives and Unpossessed Forms of Obligatorily Possessed Nouns
204
Directional and Locational Adverbs loq biik and kanoq and Conjugation of Irregular Derived Transitive Verb ajawaxik and Use of Auxiliary Verbs k...
210
Kichee to English Vocabulary
221
The Creation of the Animals a Long Time Ago
250
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About the author (2017)

James L. Mondloch is adjunct professor at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico, where he founded the K'iche' Maya Oral History Project, a digitized collection of more than one hundred oral histories gathered in the municipios of Nahualá and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán in Sololá, Guatemala, during the 1960s and 1970s. He has co-translated and annotated several sixteenth-century K'ichee' documents, including El Título de Totonicapán, El Título Yax, and El Título K'oyoy, in collaboration with Robert Carmack.

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