Akatek language

Akatek
Acateco
Kuti, q'anub'al'
Native toGuatemala
Mexico
RegionHuehuetenango
Chiapas
Ethnicity66,000 Akateko in Guatemala (2019 census)
Native speakers
65,000 in Guatemala (2011 – 2019 census)[1]
2,900 in Mexico (2020 census)[2]
Mayan
Latin
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byInstituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala
Language codes
ISO 639-3knj
Glottologwest2635
ELPAkateko
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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.[3] 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.[4] Alternate spellings for the language include Akatec, Akateko, and Akateco.

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.[5]

  1. ^ Akatek at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  3. ^ Cabral, Ernesto Díaz Couder (2001). "Culturas e interculturalidad en Guatemala". Archived from the original on 2010-02-15. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Ethnologue
  5. ^ Law, Danny (2020). Pattern borrowing, linguistic similarity, and new categories: Numeral classifiers in Mayan. Spring Nature. pp. 351–354.