Wuqu' Kawoq

In all of our work, we at Wuqu’ Kawoq are committed to the use, preservation, and revitalization of Mayan languages. Currently our work puts us into daily contact with speakers of Kaqchikel and K’ichee’ Maya and, as a result, field staff and volunteers are required to speak these languages. All of our medical consultations and community education work is conducted in Mayan languages whenever appropriate.

We believe that loss of domains of language use is an ominous sign for a language; conversely reclaiming domains of use, such as Wuqu’ Kawoq staff and patients do by communicating about their health concerns in Mayan languages, has a revitalizing effect on the language.

In addition to strongly promoting the use of Mayan languages in all social spheres, Wuqu’ Kawoq staff also conduct investigations on neologism formation, dialectical variation, and other aspects of language use pertinent to our programs. We work closely with the Academy of Mayan Languages on much of this work. Currently, we are also working on converting our large collection of recorded Kaqchikel interviews into an electronic corpus which will be made available to the wider community. In 2010, we began new projects on medical neologisms and diabetes education print materials in Kaqchikel.

Recently, we have been collaborating with the Academy and other nongovernmental organizations to produce online resources in Kaqchikel. Examples of these collaborations include a Kaqchikel interface for two community journalism websites, HablaGuate and VOZZ.

We actively solicit collaborations with linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and all others committed to the preservation of Mayan languages.