K'ICHE'

I am learning a Mayan language! There are over 20 different Mayan languages and I am going to learn K'iche' which according to Wikipedia is the second most widely spoken language in Guatemala. K'iche' means "many trees" K'i means many and Che' means trees.

In my new town the majority of people are bilingual and speak both Spanish and K'iche.' Most events and activities in my town are done at least partly in K'iche'. Luckily for me most people speak Spanish too! Although after I finished introducing myself to one kindergarten class and getting blank stares the teacher began talking in K'iche'. When I asked her she told me that only two of the students really speak Spanish...that might have been useful information before I started my spiel.

I am taking classes with Rosemeri, a woman who teaches the first grade at the school in my town. I'm lucky she is so patient and supportive of all of my terrible pronunciations. The plan is to take 20 hours of class, but I enjoy her company and like having an afternoon activity so I might try and get the PC to pay for more classes.

My adorable teacher (she usually wears glasses but took them off for the picture) with my K'iche' lesson behind her

Basically I can sum up my first lesson by: Kinch'obtaj le k'iche' tzij (which is roughly pronounced keen-ch-op-tahh le k'iche' tz-ee-hh). This means I don't speak K'iche'. It is hard! I'm also kidding there is no way I can pronounce all that correctly! There are so many different throat sounds that I have never made in my life.

Words are pronounced more or less like Spanish unless there are ( ' ) or ( ¨ ). Therefore I like words with no accents or anything. Like pempem (like pen pen but with m's). This means butterfly. Unlike in many other languages the accents ( ' ) occupy their own space in the word which makes it easy to type on a computer.

When there accents over vowels they are pronounced doubly and with a stronger emphasis ~ a'= a-A!, e'=e-E!, i'=i-I!, o=o-O!, u=u-U!

In addition:
B' is pronounced like a p when you pop your lips
        Keb' = two and is pronounced kep(with a lip smacking pop  
        on the p)
K' is pronounced like k with static
Q' is the hardest! It is pronounced like you have a little air in the back of your throat and then you half swallow it - I'm still working on it.

Rosemeri is teaching me K'iche' by using Spanish so English is no longer the base of my language learning. I think this is pretty cool.