Yucatec Maya ("Yukatek Maya" in the revised orthography of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala) is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, northern Belize and parts of Guatemala. To native speakers, it is known only as Maya - "Yucatec" is a tag linguists use to distinguish it from other Mayan languages (such as K'iche' and Itza' Maya). The Yucatán Peninsula separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. ... Quintana Roo is a state of Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. ... The State of Campeche was long a part of Yucatán and shared its history through the mid 19th century. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Page 9 of the Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language written in Mayan hieroglyphs(from the 1880 Förstermann edition) Mayan languages (alternatively: Maya languages[1]) constitute a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... The Mayan languages are a family of related languages spoken from South-Eastern Mexico through northern Central America as far south as Honduras. ... The Yucatán peninsula as seen from space The Yucatán Peninsula separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. ... The Kiche language (Quiché in Spanish) is a part of the Mayan language family. ... Itza (Itza, Petén Itzá Maya) is a Mayan language spoken only by a few elderly adults in communities to the north of Lake Itzá in Guatemala. ...

In the Mexican states of Yucatán, northern Campeche and Quintana Roo, Maya remains many speakers' first language today, with approximately 800,000 speakers. The United Mexican States or Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México) is a federal republic made up of 31 states (estados) and one Federal District, (Distrito Federal), which contains the capital, Mexico City. ... Yucatán is the name of one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. ... The State of Campeche was long a part of Yucatán and shared its history through the mid 19th century. ... Quintana Roo is a state of Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. ...

Characteristics

A characteristic feature of Yucatec Maya (and all Mayan languages) is the use of ejective consonants - /p'/, /k'/, /t'/. Often referred to as glottalized consonants, they are pronounced more or less like their non-ejective counterparts, though the pronunciation is briefly halted and then released with a characteristic popping sound. These sounds are written using an apostrophe after the letter to distinguish them from the plain consonants (e.g., t'áan "speech" vs. táan "chest"). The apostrophes indicating these sounds were not common in written Maya until the 20th century but are now becoming more common. Yucatec Maya is one of only three Mayan languages to have developed tone (the others are Uspantek and one dialect of Tzotzil). It distinguishes between vowels with high and low tones - high tone is usually indicated in writing by an acute accent (á í é ó ú). Also, Yukatek has contrastive laryngealization on vowels, as in the plural suffix -oo'b. Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants in a language. ... The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the human larynx. ... For other uses, see Apostrophe (disambiguation). ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... The Uspanteko language (Uspanteco, Uspantec) is spoken in Guatemala. ... Tzotzil is a Maya language spoken by the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people in Chiapas, Mexico. ...

Like almost all Mayan languages, Yucatec Maya is verb initial. Word order varies between VOS and VSO with VOS being the most common. Many sentences may appear to be SVO, but this is a derived order due to a topic-comment system similar to that of Japanese. One of the most widely studied areas of Yukatek is the semantics of time in the language. Yukatek, like many other languages of the world (Kalaallisut, arguably Mandarin Chinese, Guaraní inter alia) lacks the grammatical category of tense. Temporal information is encoded by a combination of aspect, inherent lexical aspect (aktionsart), and pragmatically governed conversational inferences. Yukatek is further unique in the world's languages for lacking temporal connective such as 'before' and 'after'.

Another unique aspect of the language is the core argument marking strategy which is a 'fluid S system' in the typology of Dixon (1994) where intransitive subjects are encoded like agents or patients based upon a number of semantics properties as well as the perfectivity of the event.

Orthography

The Maya were literate in pre-Columbian times, when the language was written using Maya hieroglyphs. The language itself can be traced back to proto-Yucatecan, the ancestor of modern Yucatec Maya, Itza, Lacandon and Mopan. Even further back, the language is ultimately related to all other Maya languages through proto-Mayan itself. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... Itza (Itza, Petén Itzá Maya) is a Mayan language spoken only by a few elderly adults in communities to the north of Lake Itzá in Guatemala. ... The Lacandon people are indigenous Native American Maya people who live mostly in the jungles in Chiapas, Mexico (until 1854 a part of Guatemala). ... The Mopan Maya language is spoken in Belize and Guatemala. ... Proto-Mayan is the hypothetical common ancestor of the 30 living Mayan languages. ...

Yucatec Maya is now written in the Latin script. This was introduced during the Spanish Conquest of Yucatán which began in the early 16th century, and the now-antiquated conventions of Spanish orthography of that period ("Colonial orthography") were adapted to transcribe Yucatec Maya. This included the use of x for the postalveolar fricative sound (often spelled as sh in English), a sound that in Spanish has since turned into a velar fricative nowadays spelled j, except in a few geographic names such as "México". The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ... The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Postalveolar fricative can refer to: voiced postalveolar fricative voiceless postalveolar fricative Category: ... velar fricative can refer to: voiced velar fricative voiceless velar fricative Category: ...

In colonial times a "reversed c" (ɔ) was often used for the [ʦ’] sound now more usually written dz (and latterly as tz' in the revised ALMG orthography).

Common Phrases in Maya

B'ix a b'el? (pronounced "B'ix a b'eh?" in parts of western Yucatan and northern Campeche)

How is your road? (meaning "How are you?")

Ma'alob', kux tech?

Good, and you? (literally "not bad, as for you?")

B'ey xan ten.

Same with me (literally "thus also to me")

Tux ka b'in?

Where are you going?

Tim b'in xíimb'al.

I am going for a walk.

B'ix a k'àab'a'?

What is your name? (Literally "how are you named?")

Jorge in k'àab'a'.

My name is Jorge (Literally "Jorge my name")

Hach ki'imak in wóol in wilikech

Pleased to meet you (Literally "very happy my heart I see you")

Bax ka wa'alik?

What's up? (Literally, "what are you saying (it)" or "what do you say?")

Mix b'á'al. (Pronounced "Mix b'á'ah" in parts of western Yucatan and northern Campeche)

Nothing.

B'ix a wilik?

How does it look? (Literally "how you see (it)?")

Hach Ma'alob'

Very good.

Kó'ox!

Let's go! (For two people - you and I)

Kó'one'ex!

Let's go! (For a group of people)

Tak sáamal (the word "tak" is often lost in many areas of the northern lowlands, and it is replaced with "hasta sáamah" in western Yucatan and northern Campeche)

Until Tomorrow. (Meaning "See you tomorrow")

Hach dyos b'o'otik.

Thank you very much. (Literally "very much God pays (it)")

Mix b'á'al. (Pronounced "Mix b'á'ah" in parts of western Yucatan and northern Campeche)

It's nothing (don't mention it - you're welcome) (literally, "Nothing").

English word derived from Maya

According to Breaking the Maya Code: Revised Edition by Michael D. Coe, 1999, the English word shark comes directly from the Maya xoc for "fish". The OED print edition describes the origin of shark as "uncertain", noting it "seems to have been introduced by the sailors of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkin's expedition, who brought home a specimen which was exhibited in London in 1569". 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... OED stands for Oxford English Dictionary Office of Enrollment & Discipline This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Events January 11 - First recorded lottery in England. ...

Use in popular culture

The 2006 film Apocalypto, directed by Mel Gibson, was filmed entirely in Yucatec Maya. For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Apocalypto is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed by Mel Gibson. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American born Australian actor, director, and producer. ...

References

• Bolles, David (1997–). Combined Dictionary–Concordance of the Yucatecan Mayan Language (revised 2003). Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.

• Bolles, David; and Alejandra Bolles (2004). A Grammar of the Yucatecan Mayan Language (revised online edition, 1996 Lee, New Hampshire). Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI). The Foundation Research Department. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.

• Coe, Michael D. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05061-9. 

• McQuown, Norman A. (1968). "Classical Yucatec (Maya)", in in Norman A. McQuown (Volume ed.): Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 5: Linguistics, R. Wauchope (General Editor), Austin: University of Texas Press, pp.201–248. ISBN 0-292-73665-7. 

• Tozzer, Alfred M. [1921] (1977). A Maya Grammar, (unabridged republication), New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-23465-7. 

2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini era. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini era. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... I dont know anything! ... Robert Wauchope may refer to one of several people: Robert Wauchope (archbishop) Archbishop of Armagh from 1539 to 1551 Robert Wauchope (admiral) Royal Navy Admiral and Inventor of the time ball Sometimes refers to : Robert Wauch Royal Navy Captain and namesake of Wauchope, New South Wales. ... Alfred Marston Tozzer (4 July 1877 - 5 October 1954) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, linguist, and educator. ...

Language courses

In addition to universities and private institutions in Mexico, (Yucatec) Maya is also taught at:

• The University of Chicago,
• Leiden University, Netherlands,
• Harvard University,
• Tulane,
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, and
• The University of North Carolina.

Audio course materials are available for purchase at

• The University of Chicago Language Labs and Archives.