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An innovative language-learning guide that will help students, researchers, and professionals in many fields quickly develop basic communication skills in one of the four major Mayan languages.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. ¡Ütz apetik! / Welcome!
  • the Kaqchikel language; learning less-commonly taught languages; using this text; the alphabet
• 2. ¿La ütz awäch? / How are you?
  • greetings, names, your town; personal and possessive pronouns, asking questions; Mayan names, Mayan towns, Kaqchikel communities today
• 3. Ri tijob'äl / The classroom
  • here and there, common activities, colors, descriptions, numbers 1-20; intransitive verbs, possessive pronouns, ordinal numbers, Mayan numerals, Mayan numbers today.
• 4. Ri winaqi' / People
  • age and gender, common actions, clothing, body parts, whose is it?, under, over, etc., emotions and conditions; nouns plurals, transitive verbs, possessed nouns, relational nouns, expressing emotions, the backstrap loom.
• 5. Ri ach'alal / The family
  • jobs and professions, parts of the house, events in the past; kinship terms, past tense, direct object pronouns, Mayan households, Kaqchikel families today.
• 6. Ri q'utu'n / Food
  • animals, fruits and vegetables, flavors, meals, likes and dislikes, plural animal names, describing flavors, expressing preferences, milpa farming today
• 7. ti k'aslemal / Life
  • the weather, morning and evening routines, household chores; reflexive verbs, relational nouns, market day
• 8. Kemchi' / Grammar Summary (Judith M. Maxwell)
• 9. Choltzïj / Glossary (Walter E. Little)
• Sources Cited and Further Reading
• Answer Key

About the Author

R. Mckenna Brown, Judith M. Maxwell, and Walter E. Little are experienced Kaqchikel teachers who founded and direct the Oxlajuj Aj Intensive Summer Program in Kaqchikel Language and Culture sponsored by Tulane University and the University of Texas at Austin. Brown is Professor and Director of the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Maxwell is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics, at Tulane University in New Orleans. Little is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Albany, State University of New York.