K'iche' belongs to the Mayan language family, within the K'ichean (Greater Quichean) branch, part of the Eastern Mayan group. It is closely related to Kaqchikel, Tz'utujil and Achi, with which it shares a common ancestor reconstructed as Proto-K'ichean. Maya presence in the Guatemalan highlands goes back millennia, and K'iche' was the language of the powerful K'iche' kingdom centered at Q'umarkaj (Utatlán).

The K'iche' are the largest Maya people in Guatemala, with over a million speakers concentrated in the western highlands, especially the departments of Quiché, Totonicapán, Sololá, Quetzaltenango and Suchitepéquez. Their culture is deeply tied to maize agriculture, the 260-day ritual calendar, and the cofradías and spiritual guides (ajq'ij). The Popol Vuh, the sacred book recounting K'iche' creation and history, is one of the most important literary works of Indigenous America.

In 1524 the forces of Pedro de Alvarado, allied with rival peoples, defeated the K'iche' and burned Q'umarkaj, beginning Spanish rule. Under colonial rule, Dominican and Franciscan friars used K'iche' for evangelization and produced grammars, vocabularies and doctrinal texts; it was in this context that the Popol Vuh was transcribed into the Latin alphabet around the mid-sixteenth century. The Indigenous population suffered massive demographic losses, forced resettlement into pueblos de indios and forced labor, yet the language remained alive in community life.

K'iche' today is among the most vital Mayan languages, transmitted across generations in many communities, though pressure from Spanish is constant. The Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala (ALMG), created in 1990, standardizes its orthography and promotes its use, and the 1996 Peace Accords recognized linguistic rights and intercultural bilingual education. Radio programs, school materials and a growing body of literature in K'iche' stand as symbols of Maya cultural reaffirmation after the armed conflict.