Since the 1970s, numerous linguists have produced studies of the K'iche' dialect of Nahualá, believing that it was a particularly conservative dialect in terms of phonology and lexicon. Some indigenous Mayas trained linguists have even advocated that the official K'iche' alphabet used by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) should reflect the phonology of the Nahualá. The dialect of Nahualá preserves sounds that have been lost in other K'iche' communities, including the K'iche' towns that are most associated with the administration of the pre-colonial K'iche' kingdom, such as Q'uma'rka'aaj (now Santa Cruz del Quiché) and Chwi' Meq'ina' (San Miguel Totonicapán). Nahualá's local dialect preserves an ancient Proto-Mayan distinction between five long vowels (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) and five short vowels (a, e, i, o, u). It is for this conservative linguistic feature that Guatemalan and foreign linguists have actively sought to have the language called "K'ichee'," rather than K'iche' or Quiché.