Tz'i'

La voz k'iche' tzi quiere decir "nixtamal," no obstante por la semejanza fonética del idioma y la ortografía colonial del manuscrito del padre Ximénez (5r) muchos traductores y lectores se han confundido el término con la palabra tz'i', "perro." A lo largo del texto, conforme a la filosofía k'iche', los veraderos perros (tz'i') son acompañados por otros animales, por ejemplo, los pavos o chompipes (Colop 2008: p39fn43-44), en cambio la tecnología del nixtamal se asocia únicamente con las piedras de moler (ka') en el contexto de la preparación de la comida y alimentación. 

The K'iche' term tzi'means "nixtamal," referring to a sophisticated process of bathing raw maize kernels in a solution of lime and water to make them easier to digest and more nutritious, but because it is phonetically similar to the K'iche' word tz'i' "perro" and because they are written the same way in the sole surviving manuscript (Ximénez 1701: 5r), many translators and readers have confused the two words. Throughout the text, dogs (tz'i') are often accompanied by other animals, such as turkeys, whereas nixtamalization is linked only with grinding stones (ka'). This pattern aligns with K'iche' philosophy of paired relationships and provides the context necessary to distinguish "dogs" from "maize processing" (Colop 2008:p39fn43-44).