Mam Language - Dialects

Dialects

Nora C. England (1983) recognizes three major groups of Mam dialects.

• Northern Mam in southern Huehuetenango Department. Northern Mam is the least conservative dialectal division according to Terrence Kaufman (England 1983:6).
• Southern Mam in Quetzaltenango Department and San Marcos Department.
• Western Mam in northwestern San Marcos Department. The Tektitek language may be mutually intelligible with Western Mam dialects.

Because of Spanish colonial policy, which enforced a harsh penalty upon the written use of indigenous languages, the language can vary widely from village to village. Due the lack of a standardized written dialect throughout the colonial era, different villages developed regional accents which evolved into full differentiated dialects, even though the villages may only be a few miles apart from each other. Furthermore, the Mam people have continually occupied their present-day territory, long before the Spanish Conquest, possibly as early as 500 A.D. according to linguist Terrence Kaufman (England 1983:6). This would explain the great dialectal diversity among the Mamean languages. Kaufman also suggests that the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes of Huehuetenango, which currently occupied mostly by speakers of Mamean languages.

Nevertheless, mutual intelligebility, though difficult, is possible through practice (English 1983).