Guatemala in other languages: names in many scripts and 22 departments

Gwatemala, Watimala, Cuauhtēmallān: how the name changes

Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French, German, Czech, Finnish and most other languages written in Latin letters keep Guatemala unchanged. The spelling bends where a language has no gu before a vowel: Polish, Maltese, Cornish and Haitian Creole write Gwatemala, Croatian, Slovenian, Latvian and Lithuanian Gvatemala, Esperanto Gvatemalo and Volapük Gvatemalän. Friulian has Vuatemale, Samoan Kuatemala and Vietnamese breaks the name into syllables, Goa-tê-ma-la.

Three forms from the Americas stand apart. Aymara and Quechua write Watimala and Yucatec Maya Watemala, both without the initial G. Nahuatl gives Cuauhtēmallān, with the long vowels marked by macrons.

In other scripts the name is spelled out by sound. Russian and Bulgarian use Гватемала, Ukrainian Ґватемала with the hard ґ, Arabic غواتيمالا beside the variant جواتيمالا, and Hebrew has six spellings, from the short גוטמלה to גוואטמאלה with doubled vav. Chinese writes 危地馬拉, Wēidìmǎlā, Japanese グアテマラ, Guatemara, and Korean 과테말라.

Department names and their seats

Thirteen departments share their name with the town that seats them, as Chimaltenango, Escuintla, Huehuetenango, Jalapa or Zacapa. The other nine have a seat with a name of its own: Cobán in Alta Verapaz, Salamá in Baja Verapaz, Guastatoya in El Progreso, Puerto Barrios in Izabal, Flores in Petén, Santa Cruz del Quiché in Quiché, Antigua Guatemala in Sacatepéquez, Cuilapa in Santa Rosa and Mazatenango in Suchitepéquez.

The capital itself takes the country's name. In the department list it is simply Guatemala, the seat of the Departamento de Guatemala; the municipal list of the department calls it Ciudad de Guatemala. Three departments use the article in Spanish, Departamento del Petén, Departamento del Quiché and Departamento de El Progreso, while ISO writes Petén and Quiché without it.