Kekchi Grammar

K'EQCHI GRAMMAR – An Introduction is the first attempt to put together a simple yet concise and precise grammar for the K'eqchi Mayan Language of Guatemala. It formally introduces the structural rules of a language that had remained only spoken for hun-dreds of years. Therefore, the main emphasis of this guide is on writing correct K'eqchi phrases and sentences. It begins with a brief introduction to personal pronouns and an explanation of verb modifiers followed by sections presenting the different tenses that characterize this natural language. A large portion of the document encompasses the classification of parts of speech that are inherent to the K'eqchi language. Finally, the last portion focuses on the building of questions, spelling, and writing sentences.

K'eqchi tenses are divided into Present, Past and Future basically. These are fol-lowed by the Present and Past Continuous tenses. Also studied are the Pseudo-Perfect, Passive Voice, Modals and Imperative. The main parts of speech enumerated in this grammar guide include Pronouns, Nouns, Articles, Prepositions, and Adjectives. At the end, a section on building Yes/No and Information Questions is included. Also im-portant is the Spelling section which shows how to derive Stative and Dynamic verbs from the Infinitive. Combining and Writing Good Sentences are sections which show how to build phrases and sentences following the K'eqchi syntax and grammatical rules.

The organization of this guide allows an overall study of the structure of the K'eqchi Mayan Language. Each tense is briefly defined and a conjugation set illustrates the use of personal pronouns. These are followed by sections that show and exemplify how to build Affirmative, Negative and Question sentences with their proper structure. An im-portant part of this grammar guide is also the classification and use of K'eqchi pronouns in several categories. The use of other parts of speech such as prepositions, articles, ad-jectives and adverbs is also exemplified. Although in Spelling the rules for deriving the main verb forms for the Indicative are explained, the Appendix at the end of this docu-ment includes a list of verb forms commonly used in K'eqchi normal speech. Lastly, all main verbs in every sentence are in italic type to highlight word order and for reference for the reader and writer.