复声母非常常见,词中音省略造成的元音消失产生了大量复辅音。复韵尾are rare except when the first member of the complex coda is a phonemic 声门塞音, which is written with an apostrophe. The sonorants /m, n, l, r/ may be 成音节。
Historically, different orthographies have been used to transliterate the Kʼicheʼ languages. The classical orthography of Father Ximénez, who wrote down the Popol Vuh, is based on Spanish orthography and has been replaced by a new standardized orthography, defined by the ALMG (Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala). The ethnohistorian and Mayanist Dennis Tedlock uses his own transliteration system, which is completely different from any of the established orthographies.
The first line of Popol Wuj in different orthographies
Ximénez's classical orthography
Are v xe oher tzíh varal Quíche ubí.
ALMG orthography
Areʼ uxeʼ ojer tzij waral Kʼicheʼ ubʼiʼ.
Ximénez's Spanish translation
Este es el principio de las Antiguas historias aquí en el Quiché.
Tedlock's English translation
"This is the beginning of the ancient word, here in the place called Quiché."
与其他玛雅语系语言类似,基切语有两套一致标记,玛雅学家们一般称为“A组”标记和“B组”标记,which can appear on both nouns and verbs. "Set A" markers are used on nouns to mark possessor agreement and on verbs to agree with the transitive subject (ergative case). "Set B" markers are used on verbs to agree with the transitive object or the intransitive subject (absolutive case).
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (编). Kʼicheʼ. Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 2016.
Grimes, Larry. 1972. The Phonological History of the Quichean Languages.Mayan Languages Collection of Larry Grimes. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America: www.ailla.utexas.org. Media: text. Access: public. Resource: QUC001R004.
Kaufman, Terrence. 1970. Proyecto de alfabetos y ortografías para escribir las lenguas mayances. Antigua: Editorial José de Pineda Ibarra.
Par Sapón, María Beatriz. 2000. Variación dialectal en kʼicheeʼ . Guatemala City: Cholsamaj.
Par Sapón, María Beatriz and Can Pixabaj, Telma Angelina. 2000. Ujunamaxiik ri Kʼicheeʼ Chʼabʼal, Variación Dialectal en Kʼicheeʼ . Proyecto de Investigación Lingüística de Oxlajuuj Keej Mayaʼ Ajtzʼiibʼ. Guatemala City: (OKMA)/Editorial Cholsamaj. ISBN99922-53-07-X.
Sam Colop. 1999. Popol Wuj — Versión Poética Kʼicheʼ.PEMBI/GTZ/Cholsamaj. (In the Quiché Maya language).
Tedlock, Dennis. 1996. Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Touchstone Books. ISBN0-684-81845-0.