Awakatek language

{{Short description|Mayan language of Guatemala}}

{{Expand Spanish|Idioma aguacateco|date=January 2018}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Awakatek

| nativename = {{lang|agu|Qa'yol}}

| states = Guatemala

| region = Huehuetenango

| ethnicity = 12,500 Awakatek (2019 census)

| speakers = 10,100 in Guatemala

| date = 2019 census

| ref = e24

| speakers2 = 20 in Mexico (2020 census)[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.

| familycolor = Mayan

| fam1 = Mayan

| fam2 = Quichean–Mamean

| fam3 = Greater Mamean

| fam4 = Ixilan

| minority = {{flag|Guatemala}}
{{flag|Mexico}}

| agency = Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala

| iso3 = agu

| glotto = agua1252

| glottorefname = Aguacateco

| dia1 = Chalchitek

| altname = Aguacatec, Coyotin

}}

Awakatek (also known as Aguateco, Awaketec, Coyotin,{{Cite web|url=http://globalrecordings.net/en/language/392|title=Global Recordings Network: Aguateco language|website=Global Recordings Network|access-date=14 October 2019}} and Balamiha, and natively as Qa'yol) is a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, primarily in Huehuetenango and around Aguacatán.{{Cite journal|last=Cabral |first=Ernesto Díaz Couder |year=2001 |title=Culturas e interculturalidad en Guatemala |url=http://www.relint.deusto.es/ALFA_EPI/documentos/Culturas%20e%20interculturalidad%20en%20Guatemala%5B1%5D.16-5-02.doc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215201714/http://www.relint.deusto.es/ALFA_EPI/documentos/Culturas%20e%20interculturalidad%20en%20Guatemala%5B1%5D.16-5-02.doc |archive-date=2010-02-15 }}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/revoltagainstdea0000brin|title=Revolt against the dead : the modernization of a Mayan community in the highlands of Guatemala|last=Brintnall, Douglas E., 1946-|date=1979|publisher=Gordon and Breach|isbn=0677051700|location=New York|oclc=4638179|url-access=registration}} The language only has fewer than 10,000 speakers, and is considered vulnerable by UNESCO. In addition, the language in Mexico is at high risk of endangerment, with fewer than 2,000 speakers in the state of Campeche in 2010{{Cite web|url=http://atlas.cdi.gob.mx/?page_id=3953|title=Awakatecos - Lengua|website=Atlas de los Pueblos Indígenas de México|access-date=14 October 2019}}{{Dead link|date=May 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (although the number of speakers was unknown as of 2000{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2017-10-11}}{{Cite journal|last=Aridjis|first=H.|date=22 February 2009|title=Homero aridjis / reír en 7 mil lenguas|journal=Reforma|pages=14}}).

Awakatek is closely related to Ixil and the two languages together form the sub-branch Ixilean, which together with the Mamean languages, Mam and Tektitek, form a sub-branch Greater-Mamean, which again, together with the Greater-Quichean languages, ten Mayan languages, including Kʼicheʼ, form the branch Quichean–Mamean.

Otto Stoll identified two separate "Awakatek" languages spoken in the same area; the first being the Mayan language, and the second being a poorly known language which has been classified as part of the Mixe-Zoque family.Lowe, Gareth W. 1977. “The Mixe-Zoque as Competing Neighbors of the Early Lowland Maya.” In The Origins of Maya Civilization, 197–248. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://ehrafarchaeology.yale.edu/document?id=ny52-036.