Symbols
81Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Q'eqchi' alphabet
The letters Q'eqchi' is written with, capital and small, in A–Z order. Q'eqchi' itself also counts ch, tz, the glottalized b' ch' k' q' t' tz' and the long vowels aa ee ii oo uu as single letters; you type them as two or three keys from this grid. D, F, G, V and Ñ appear only in Spanish names and loanwords.
The glottal mark
The apostrophe that makes b' ch' k' q' t' tz' and stands alone for the glottal stop. The ALMG prints the plain '; ʼ is the Unicode letter apostrophe; ’ is what phones and word processors put in automatically.
Punctuation
Q'eqchi' texts in Guatemala often follow Spanish punctuation, so questions and exclamations open upside down.
Currency
The Guatemalan quetzal is written with a plain Q (Q50); the Belize dollar with $.
Where it's spoken
Guatemala (Alta Verapaz, Petén, Izabal) and Toledo District in Belize, largest first.
Maya numerals
Dots are ones, bars are fives, the shell is zero; Q'eqchi' number words also count in twenties.
Alta Verapaz and Toledo
Maize, the kak'ik turkey soup with its chili, Cobán coffee, Toledo cacao, the weaving of the white huipil, and the pools of Semuc Champey.
On the map
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The Q'eqchi' alphabet: plain letters, long vowels and the apostrophe
Q'eqchi' (older spellings Kekchi, Kekchí, Quekchí) is a Maya language of Guatemala and Belize, centred on Alta Verapaz. It is written in the unified alphabet that Guatemala made official for its Maya languages in 1987 and that the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) looks after, so every sound has one fixed spelling. No accented letter is needed: the whole language fits on an ordinary keyboard.
In Q'eqchi' order the letters are a, aa, b', ch, ch', e, ee, h, i, ii, j, k, k', l, m, n, o, oo, p, q, q', r, s, t, t', tz, tz', u, uu, w, x, y and the glottal stop '. Ch and tz count as single letters, and so does every consonant with an apostrophe. In native Q'eqchi' words, c and z occur in ch and tz, but c and z can also appear in Spanish names and loanwords. D, F, G, V and Ñ turn up only in Spanish names and loanwords, so the grid leaves them out.
Q'eqchi' tells short and long vowels apart and writes a long vowel by doubling it: aa ee ii oo uu. Length is part of the word, like the apostrophe, so a missing letter can change the meaning. There is still nothing special to type: a long vowel is simply the same key twice.
How to pronounce Q'eqchi' and its letters
The name itself shows the hardest sounds. q is a k made further back in the throat, a sound English does not have; q' is the same sound with a popping release; ch is as in English church; and the final ' is a glottal stop, the catch in the middle of uh-oh. An English speaker gets close with KECK-chee ending in a short catch.
Elsewhere, x is the sh of English shoe, j is the throaty sound of Spanish j, w is the English w, and tz is the ts of cats. After ch k q t tz the apostrophe marks an ejective: the throat closes and the consonant comes out with a small pop. After b it marks a bilabial implosive /ɓ/, made with an inward airstream. Q is never followed by a silent u as in Spanish que.
Which apostrophe to use in Q'eqchi': ' ʼ or ’
Three characters look like the Q'eqchi' apostrophe. The plain typewriter apostrophe ' is a keyboard-friendly fallback that every keyboard has; printed alphabets and CLDR also write the saltillo with the curly ’ . The modifier letter apostrophe ʼ is the Unicode character meant for a glottal stop inside a word, so software keeps a word written with it in one piece; CLDR, the data behind language names on phones and computers, spells the name Qʼeqchiʼ with it. Unicode names ’ RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK and recommends it for punctuation apostrophes; phones and word processors may insert it automatically.
All three read the same, but mixing them makes search and spell-check stumble: Q'eqchi' and Q’eqchi’ are two different strings to a computer, and some people leave the mark out entirely and type qeqchi. Pick one and keep it; to keep the straight ', switch off "smart quotes" or "smart punctuation".
How to type the Q'eqchi' apostrophe and ¿ ¡
The straight ' has its own key. On the Latin American layout common in Guatemala it sits to the right of 0, next to the ¿ ¡ key; on a US keyboard it is next to Enter; on phones it is on the punctuation page.
For the others: in Microsoft Word type 02BC and press AltX for ʼ; the curly ’ is Alt0146 on the Windows number pad and OptionShift] on a Mac. On a US keyboard ¿ is Alt0191 and ¡ Alt0161, or OptionShift? and Option1 on a Mac. In HTML the codes are ʼ for ʼ, ’ for ’, ¿ for ¿ and ¡ for ¡. Or copy them from the grid above.
Where the Q'eqchi' language is spoken
CLDR estimates about 1.6 million Q'eqchi' speakers, which makes it one of the largest Maya languages. Almost all of them live in Guatemala : in Alta Verapaz around Cobán, San Pedro Carchá, Lanquín and Cahabón, and, after generations of migration, in southern Petén and Izabal. Guatemalan money is the quetzal, written with a plain Q before the amount, Q50; the Guatemala collection has the country's flag, food and other emoji.
Across the border, Belize has an estimated 27,000 speakers, mostly in the villages of Toledo District, where many Q'eqchi' families grow cacao, the bean behind chocolate ; prices there are in Belize dollars, , and the Belize collection covers the country. Q'eqchi' shares the Verapaces with Poqomchi' and Achi, and K'iche', Kaqchikel and Mam are written in the same alphabet; each has its own collection, and the apostrophe works the same way in all of them.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyQ'eqchi' Alphabet & Letters combos
10Worth knowing
- Kak'ik, the spicy red turkey soup of Alta Verapaz, has a Q'eqchi' name usually explained as kaq 'red' ik 'chili', and Guatemala declared it part of its intangible cultural heritage in 2007.
- Q'eqchi' is one of the few Maya languages whose speaker area is still growing: from the Verapaces it has spread north into Petén and east to Izabal and Belize over the last century and a half.
- Q'eqchi' needs no accented letter at all. Its hardest character to type is the apostrophe, and Unicode has a separate one, ʼ U02BC, made for exactly this job.
- The Maya numerals 𝋠 to 𝋳 entered Unicode only in 2018, in version 11.0, and not every font draws them, so they may show as boxes on older systems.
Questions people ask
7What is the Q'eqchi' alphabet?
The Latin letters a, aa, b', ch, ch', e, ee, h, i, ii, j, k, k', l, m, n, o, oo, p, q, q', r, s, t, t', tz, tz', u, uu, w, x, y and the glottal stop ', in the unified spelling of Guatemala's Maya languages. There are no accented letters; doubled vowels and the apostrophe do the work.
How do you pronounce Q'eqchi'?
Roughly KECK-chee with a short catch at the end, the q sounds made far back in the throat and the first one popped. The final ' is a glottal stop, as in the middle of uh-oh.
Is Kekchi the same as Q'eqchi'?
Yes. Kekchi (Kekchí) is the older spelling of the same language; Q'eqchi' is the official spelling of Guatemala's unified Maya alphabet of 1987. In Belize the Kekchi spelling is still common.
Where is the Q'eqchi' language spoken?
Mainly in Guatemala, in Alta Verapaz around Cobán and in Petén and Izabal, and in Toledo District, Belize. CLDR estimates about 1.6 million speakers.
What does the apostrophe mean in Q'eqchi' words?
After ch, k, q, t or tz it marks an ejective consonant, said with the throat closed; after b it marks the Maya b; on its own it is a glottal stop. It is part of the spelling, so leaving it out writes a different word.
Which apostrophe should I use for Q'eqchi': ' or ʼ?
The plain ' is a keyboard-friendly fallback that every keyboard has; printed alphabets and CLDR also write the saltillo with ’ . ʼ is the Unicode letter apostrophe, better where software splits text into words. The curly ’ is what phones insert automatically. Whichever you pick, use it throughout.
How do you say thank you in Q'eqchi'?
B'antiox. Its first consonant is b', with the apostrophe after b.
