A Dictionary of Ch’orti’ Mayan-Spanish-English

By Kerry Hull

Of extant languages, Ch’orti’ Mayan is the closest to ancient the Maya hieroglyphic script, but it is a language that is decreasing in usage. In southern Guatemala where it is spoken, many children no longer learn it, as Spanish dominates most experiences. From linguistic and anthropological data gathered over many years, Kerry Hull has created the largest and most complete Ch’orti’ Mayan dictionary to date. With nearly 9,000 entries, this trilingual dictionary of Ch’orti’, Spanish, and English preserves ancient words and concepts that were vital to this culture in the past.

Each entry contains examples of Ch’orti’ sentences along with their translations. Each term is defined grammatically and linked to a grammatical index. Variations due to age and region are noted. Additionally, extensive cultural and linguistic annotations accompany many entries, providing detailed looks into Ch’orti’ daily life, mythology, flora and fauna, healing, ritual, and food. Hull worked closely with native speakers, including traditional ritual specialists, and presents that work here in a way that is easily accessible to scholars and laypersons alike.

Kerry Hull is currently a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He is author of An Abbreviated Dictionary of Ch’orti’ Mayan, and coeditor of Ch'orti' Maya Area: Past and Present and of Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
User’s Guide
1. Orthography
1.1. Phonetic Description and Alphabet
1.2. /b’/
1.2.1. /l/
1.2.2. /g/ and /w/
1.3. Vowel Rearticulation
1.4. Consonant Reduction and Assimilation
1.4.1. /m/ and /n/
1.4.2. /j/ and /Ø/  
1.5. Glottal Stop
 2. Format of Dictionary
2.1. Fonts
2.2. Main Entry
2.3. Always Possessed Nouns
2.3.1. Possessive Forms
2.3.2. Reflexive Pronouns  
2.4. Multiple-Word Entries and Relational Noun Phrases
2.4.1. jut / ut  
2.4.2. jor / or
2.5. Verbal nouns 
2.6. Neologisms
2.7. Grammatical Descriptions 
2.8. Translations of Main Entry
2.9. Sample Sentences
2.9.1. Spanish Definite Articles
2.9.2. Cultural and Linguistic Annotations
2.10. Overall Data
2.10.1 Scientific Data
2.11. Symbols
References/Bibliografia
Abbreviations/Abreviaturas
 Ch'orti'-Spanish-English Dictionary/Diccionario Ch'orti'-Español-Ingles

Praise and Reviews:

“Professor Hull’s dictionary is the product of one who is not only a competent linguist, but one who is a fluent speaker of the Ch’orti’ language. More importantly, he is meticulously careful with the data.”
—John S. Robertson, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, Brigham Young University

“Thorough, systematic, well researched, and easy to use. This dictionary will be the standard used by me and anyone else interested in the Ch’orti’ language.”
—Brent Metz, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas

“A state-of-the-art dictionary of modern Ch’orti’…. This comprehensive and detailed dictionary will not only be a valuable resource for all those who study Ch’orti’, Mayan linguistics, culture, religion, or Classic Maya writing. The inclusion of Spanish makes it also accessible to the speakers in Jocotán, which allows its use in the context of language and cultural revitalisation in Guatemala.”—Anthropos