אוספנטקו

Uspanteko (autonymously Tz'unun K'iche', "the language of Uspantán") is a K'ichean Mayan language of the Cuchumatanes highlands of Guatemala, spoken by around 5,000 people primarily in the Uspantán municipality of El Quiché department. Uspanteko is famous in linguistic typology for being the only Mayan language with grammatical tone — most Mayan languages have lost their original Proto-Mayan tonal contrasts, but Uspanteko has innovated a new tonal system that is used for grammatical purposes (specifically, for marking perfective aspect on certain verbs). Linguistically, Uspanteko is part of the K'ichean branch alongside K'iche' (quc), Tz'utujil (tzj), Kaqchikel (cak), and Sakapulteko (skp), but with distinct phonological and lexical features. The Uspanteko community survived the 1980s Guatemalan Civil War genocide and have maintained their language through community isolation in the Cuchumatanes mountain valleys.