Our long-range goal is to produce a special dictionary of Q’eqchi’ Mayan language, focused on Mayan ethnozoology and ethnobotany, as well as terms for Mayan house architecture, native food plants, etc. In other words, a dictionary of utilitarian plants and animals: the flora and fauna of the Mayan people of Guatemala and adjacent lands.

Since this is a long-range interest, we need to start at ground level, so we are doing one theme at a time. Each theme will grow as funding makes it possible to hire an additional Q’eqchi’ translator, hire an additional graphic designer to put this into book format, and cover the costs of posting all this on the Internet (it takes a team of two full-time people to maintain our FLAAR web sites).

As we move forward we will add the zoological name (genus and species), though many of these words are generic for a kind of fish or kind of shell.

This list also includes water related reptiles and amphibians.

We have a bibliography on Q'eqchi' diccionaries and vocabularies

We have a separate web site in the FLAAR network where we show all our bibliographies, www.maya-art-books.org. In this web site we have a page listing the best known diccionaries and vocabularios of Q'eqchi' (K'ekchi') Mayan language.

Naturally we utilize these dictionaries to make our word lists, but this work is done by native Q’eqchi’ Mayan speakers who work in our office. We have noticed that the spelling of words varies by region, since Q’eqchi’ is spoken all the way from Alta Verapaz, to Izabal, into Belize and Peten.

Nicholas edited the translations since, having lived in Guatemala for over 50 years, he is well aware that the word tigre and leon can also mean jaguar and mountain lion (if the Spanish is local lingo).

 First posted late November 2015.