Mayan Linguistics

El universo y nuestro planeta están en constante diálogo. Desde el origen del hombre y de la formación y el entramado de las civilizaciones más antiguas, ha existido la necesidad humana de imaginar y explicar el inicio de la vida, el planeta y la humanidad. Los mayas no fueron excepción a la regla. En el marco de esa idea largamente estudiada por hombres y mujeres de todas las épocas, la sexta edición del Festival Internacional de la Cultura Maya 2017 tendrá como concepto original " La cosmogonía y la preservación del planeta " , en un evento que se llevará al cabo del 19 de octubre al 5 de noviembre próximos.  De esta manera, Yucatán volverá a ser sede del mayor encuentro académico, científico, intelectual, artístico y estético que ha sido el FICMAYA desde su fundación en 2012. En esta ocasión, el país invitado será Canadá y la Ciudad de México la entidad invitada. Del programa de actividades destacan la mesa redonda, " La Cosmogonía y la Mitología entre Los Mayas " , y, especialmente, la conferencia mundial " La Cosmogonía y la Mitología de las Civilizaciones Milenaria en Preservación del Planeta " , que se realizará del 24 al 26 de octubre.

Maya art is a rare combination of linear elegance and naturalism, blended with dazzling symbolic complexity.  Decorated objects, ranging from painted vases and carved jade and shell ornaments to towering stone monuments and building façades, bear the traces of a symbol system that, while fascinating, can make an understanding of these images elusive to the uninitiated.

Presented here for the first time is a compendium of one hundred Classic Mayan hieroglyphs that are also building blocks of much ancient Maya painting and sculpture. The symbols touch on many facets of the Maya world, from the natural environment—animals, plants, the heavens—to the mental landscape of gods, myths, and rituals.

Using hundreds of line drawings and photographs, the authors show how to identify these signs, understand their meaning, and appreciate the novel ways they appear in art. As well as providing a basic introduction, the authors offer many new and exciting interpretations.

Lavishly illustrated, and fully cross-referenced and indexed, this groundbreaking guide will prove an invaluable tool for those wishing to see Maya art, perhaps for the first time, through the eyes of ancient scribes and artists.

The purpose of this study is to identify, describe, and discuss the poetic structures and verbal artistry of a seventeenth century manuscript written primarily in the Colonial Mayan language Ch'olti'. Because this manuscript is the sole attestation ofthis partic- ular language, any analysis necessarily involves a comparison of Ch'olti' poetry with known elements of Mayan poetic traditions in general, including specifically the verbal art of Ch'orti' a very close relative of, Ch'olti'. The various poetic forms used throughout the manuscript lend themselves to interesting inferences regarding the respective pragmatic purposes of the differing sections of the manu- script. A great deal can be learned from this document about the role of poetic discourse among the Ch'olti' at the time that this manu- script was authored. The consistency between the poetic forms used in the Ch'olti' manuscript and those so long associated with the Maya culture suggest that the author(s) of this text had a deep under- standing of Maya culture that enabled them to adapt their message, both in content and in structure, so that it would most appeal to the sensibilities of the intended audience.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Este libro de texto esta diseñado para estudiantes mayas mayahablantes y no mayahabalantes cuya intensión es aprender de la lengua maya yucateco. El producto es resultado de una investigación del Cuerpo Académico de Educación y Cultura de la Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo del proyecto Fortalecimiento de la lengua maya yucateco en el aula intercultural.

Recent papers on epigraphy reinterpret the grammar of the hieroglyphic texts of the Classic Maya (AD 300-900). Verbal affixation is reanalyzed and, contrary to earlier opinions, it is claimed that texts use present tense (incompletive aspect) in narrating past events. This paper argues against the reanalysis, and discusses a comparative survey of the use of tense-aspect and other discourse features of modern and historical Mayan texts, from comparable genres and relevant languages. We attempt to reconstruct the outlines of Classic Maya narrative discourse style and gauge the likelihood of the new proposals in light of the patterns observed.

This section consists of lesson materials for students related to Mayan language and writing.  Lesson components can be used together as an entire unit, individually as needed, or as differentiated activities for groups within your classroom.

Spanish language translation is here: https://www.academia.edu/39332248/Lengua_Maya_y_Escritura

Revision History: July 2018 - a chart of Mayan language groups has been added

View the full book here: https://www.academia.edu/41244430/The_Ancient_Maya_For_Teachers_and_Learners

This paper examines the formal structure of the grammatical tense/aspect/mood system in Chontal, a Mayan language from Mexico. The verbal grammar is analyzed as a continuum of semantically and morphosyntactically interrelated phenomena of different sorts, from fully grammaticalized (grammatical core) to those lexical items that may possibly be grammaticalized in the future (grammatical periphery). The distinction between grammatical core and periphery is not only important in order to represent in an appropriate way the internal architecture of a grammatical system, but can also help to better understand semantic properties of its structural components. The core elements are usually ambiguous and express very general meanings; the peripheral elements may optionally make them more precise, thereby disambiguating the utterance.

Mormon’s Chronological Summary of the Period from the 19th Regnal Year of the Reign of MosiahI to the Coming of the Limhites and Mormon’s Synopsis of the Book of Mormon Prophetic Calendar
A small scrap of paper entitled “Caractors” (also known as the Anthon Transcript) that contained Reformed Egyptian characters copied from the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated has remained an enigma for more than a hundred years.  Finally, the characters have been successfully translated. In a book that is the first of its kind, Jerry Grover, a professional civil engineer, geologist, and translator, has been able to crack the code of the “reformed Egyptian.” The author’s approach is meticulous and scientific. This book is a landmark event in Book of Mormon studies and is a book that must be read by every serious student of the Book of Mormon and of Mesoamerican studies. The author is dedicating all proceeds from the book to additional scientific studies to cast further light on the ancient setting of the Book of Mormon.

As a difficult and painful experience, death is one of areas of human life that typically calls for non-literal, that is metaphoric or metonymic, treatment. It is a complex domain with many possible conceptualisations. From a European standpoint, it is frequently conceptualised as the end of a journey and related to darkness. It is also personified as the Grim Reaper – a cloaked skeletal figure with a scythe, which reaps people like farmers reap crops. On the other hand, in Mesoamerica death is conceptualised as the commencement of a journey (och-ha’ ‘to water-enter’; och-bih ‘to road-enter’) and the extinguishment of breath (k’a’ay usak ? ik’il ‘his white … breath diminishes’). This paper examines typical metaphoric and metonymic semantic extensions in Mayan languages, which reveal patterns of thought hidden behind linguistic expressions, as well as analyses the images of death as complex, culturally determined conceptual blends.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The Pre-Columbian Mayan hieroglyphic script utilized logograms, representing CVC roots or CVCVC stems, and CV syllabograms. Starting with Knorozov's (1952 etc.) initial breakthroughs in applying a Mayan linguistic model to account for the script's spelling practices, most scholars have assumed that 'synharmonic' spellings of roots or stems, those in which the final consonant is 'complemented' by means of a CV syllabogram whose vowel is identical in quality to that of the root (e.g. C 1 V 1 C 2 -C 2 (V 1 )), exhibited a linguistically 'fictitious' (or silent) vowel; such synharmonic spellings were commonly assumed to be default. Efforts were then aimed at determining the motivation of spellings in which the final syllabogram is instead 'disharmonic' (e.g. C 1 V 1 C 2 -C 2 (V 2 )). Recently, it has been proposed that the vowels of disharmonic spellings were utilized as diacritics applied to the vowels of the preceding syllables in order to convey that such vowels were complex, while maintaining, generally, that synharmonic spellings were default. The present paper offers a thorough review of these proposals and gives arguments against their persuasiveness, abiding instead by four phonological contexts that call for the insertion of fictitious synharmonic vowels, supplemented by morphological conditioning and consonant deletion that account for additional cases of synharmonic spellings, and the vast majority of disharmonic spellings. These principles allow for a major refinement of the definition of 'conventionalized' and 'default' spellings, a new avenue for determining the nature of 'pseudologographic' or 'morphosyllabic' signs based on common syllabograms, and a new cognitive framework for addressing the question of the nature of logograms and syllabograms, as well as the origin and development of Mayan spelling practices.

Este artículo describe la estructura morfosintáctica de construcciones prohibitivas (imperativas negativas) en cinco lenguas mayas del subgrupo cholano-tseltalano. Estas lenguas, aunque son estrechamente emparentadas, utilizan al menos tres distintas estrategias gramaticales para expresar el significado prohibitivo. El análisis corrobora la observación tipológica de que la naturaleza semántica del prohibitivo es más compleja que una simple combinación de la polaridad negativa y la modalidad imperativa. La variación se estudia bajo el enfoque “microtipológico” que, en este caso particular, es superior a un estudio “macrotipológico” basado en un amplio muestreo de lenguas, ya que permite obtener una perspectiva más detallada y trazar hipótesis sobre posibles cambios diacrónicos.

Underlying Maya cosmology, history and religion are several key mythological narratives explaining the origins of the world, and providing sacred charters for civilized/moral behavior. Key elements from these narratives—including shared mythemes, characters, and toponyms—have long been known to recur in various regions of Southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, in the oral traditions of several groups speaking distinct but related Mayan languages. One such is a widespread narrative concerning an aged god of the mountains whose daughter, granddaughter, or wife runs away with a young culture hero: a parable often echoing acute concerns about female marital fidelity in contemporary christianized Maya communities. Naturally enough, the contexts of these modern myths have occasioned some concern that they may be little more than thinly disguised retellings of Biblical stories of unfaithful wives, such as Hosea and Gomer. Yet several Late Classic Maya vases and monuments from the late 7th and early 8th century AD apparently reference episodes from this same narrative, here explicitly involving Huk Xib (later Huk Siip), the aged Lord of the Deer, whose wife is spirited away by Juun Ixiim, the youthful Maize God, in a union which may have produced the famed Hero Twins. Epigraphic and iconographic analysis of the texts and imagery reflecting this lost myth, coupled with cautious comparison with potentially related modern Maya myths, allow us to reconstruct many of the basic events of this ancient tale, although several mysteries remain. Such continuity reminds us that myths can be surprisingly durable, even in the wake of military conquest and centuries of colonial rule and religious conversion. Nonetheless, still unresolved is the extent to which these various early fragments allow the confident reconstruct of a single, underlying myth. It is suggested that various regional and temporal variants may find expression or emphasis in these texts, raising questions about many of our reconstructions of ancient mythic narratives.

The Pan-Maya movement helped with the revitalization efforts in Guatemala and Mexico. This movement was not without resistance and difficulties, particularly in the standardization process. In Belize, only a few grass roots effort have taken hold in what is hoped to be a revitalization of their own.

En las lenguas mayas, el incompletivo forma parte del paradigma de las marcas aspectuales y/o temporales. Aunque el mismo término “incompletivo” se usa regularmente en relación a las lenguas de toda la familia, los rasgos semánticos de esta categoría varian mucho según las lenguas particulares. El significado general del incompletivo puede ser analizado como un conjunto de tres significados más elementales: progresivo, habitual y futuro. Dentro de la familia maya hay lenguas en que el incompletivo abarca los tres significados, pero también hay lenguas en que el ámbito de los usos del incompletivo se limita a sólo uno o dos significados de la lista. El incompletivo semánticamente reducido ocurre cuando el paradigma de tiempo/aspecto incluye otras categorías que asumen algunos de los tres significados ya mencionados. El significado de habitual se encuentra en todas las lenguas examinadas y por lo tanto parece ser el significado básico del incompletivo.

Genealogical statements referencing parents, grandfathers, and siblings have been identified in Mayan hieroglyphic writing, and these notations provide important information regarding the royal dynasties of the Classic Period and the patrilineal descent system for rulership that the Maya employed. In addition to these statements, the juxtaposing of text and image was used to enhance genealogical information. Such a convention was employed on the Temple of the Inscriptions sarcophagus of the great Palenque king K’inich Janaab Pakal I. This paper examines K’inich Janaab Pakal I’s ancestors that are featured on his sarcophagus and identifies their genealogical relationships.

Language development and language socialization among the Mayans of Zinacantan.
Longitudinal study from birth to early language production looking at preverbal communication, teasing routines, early semantics, early evidentials and the context of children development in a traditional indigenous culture.  Awarded the Best Research in Linguistics in 2005 by the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e HIstoria.

This study employs a conjunctive, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary iconographic, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence to shed light on the role of religious specialists and religious practice in Maya society of the Classic Period (A.D. 250 - 900). Its central contribution is a thematic model of Classic Maya priesthood.

While the existence of priests in Classic society has been questioned—and while some have seen the religious specialists and political leaders of the period as shamans—this study finds evidence for an elect group of professional worshippers who constituted a ‘class apart’, wearing distinctive vestments, propitiating deities in temples, producing liturgical documents (codices), and performing community-wide services on a regular, calendrical basis. Such traits are all characteristic of priests in universal comparison. Priests occupied various ranked offices since at least the outset of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600), including: (1) ajk’uhuun or “worshipper”, a propitiator of deities and keeper of codices, but also a court chaplain (parallel to the Colonial Yucatec ajk’ìin); (2) yajawk’ahk’ or “fire's vassal”, primarily a warrior priest, but also responsible for incense ceremonies (parallel to the Aztec tlenamácac “fire priest”); and; (3) ti’sakhuun “speaker of/for the white headband”, a prophet and oracular priest (cognate with the Colonial Yucatec chi’laan), intermediary betweens humans and gods, and also a spokesman for the king. Importantly, a number of prominent ixajk’uhuun or “priestesses” are also known from the second half of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 700 - 800).

The existence of a Classic Maya priesthood reveals hitherto unsuspected dimensions of the social, political and economic organization of Maya society.  Like their Postclassic and Modern descendants, Classic priests were more than esteemed religious specialists, scribes and teachers; they also wielded considerable political and economic power. They commissioned their own monuments and temples, governed their own segmentary lineage compounds, and even acted as regents or stewards for young rulers. 

While most priests acknowledged subordination to their k’uhulajaw or “holy lord”—himself the divine king and ex officio high priest—this information could be suppressed in private documents, and some priests served multiple rulers in turn. As such, the monumental commissions of priests and other non-royal nobles comprise a crucial, nominally independent register of historical information which reveal emic dimensions of resistance to royal ideology, and which can be profitably compared and contrasted with “official” royal history.

The article is focused on two female taboos linked with menstruation and pregnancy existing among the contemporary
members of the Lacandon community. Despite the references about one female taboo associated with different restrictions
for women (sacred places, participation in rituals and other specific activities), in this research we analyse two categories of
reasons for these taboos. The first one related to menstruation takes into account the spiritual essence of blood and the necessity
of keeping it under control during rituals. Menstruation in this case represents an outflow of spiritual powers that cannot be
controlled, with possible risks for the community. In the case of pregnancy, the reason for it being a taboo is different because it
concerns the lack of blood. In this sense, the presented theory is based on the concepts of nagualism, indicating that the existence
of two souls/beings in one body presupposes magic power and healing possibilities with a high risk of magic attacks. The evidence
obtained during long-term fieldwork clarify that the so-called female taboo is composed of two different reasons. It is not
the same phenomenon because the expectations, as well as the consequences, are different. To conclude, a phenomenon formally
comparable with other similar phenomenon from the Old World could possibly have different origins.

This collection of six narratives by speakers of Chuj, a Mayan language of Guatemala, illustrates a range of narrative texts from borrowed tales (Oedipus Rex) to traditional native lore (Coyote and Rabbit), from recent history (The Communists) to procedural accounts (Taking out the Salt). All are transcribed from the original recording in Chuj and translated to English, and reference is made to accessible audio files of the interviews. Introductory material includes an account of field work in the Chuj area and a discussion of the discourse structure of the narrations. A short sketch of the grammar of Chuj is followed by a detailed morpheme-by-morpheme analysis of one narrative.

This paper discusses the semantic domain of irreality and the grammatical means of its expression in Q'eqchi', a Mayan language from Guatemala. Three morphosyntactic devices are examined in detail: the prefix t- from the tense/aspect/mood paradigm, the "status" suffix-q/-aq and some second-position clitics. Due to the significant structural and functional diversity of the irreality markers, it is argued that Q'eqchi' does not distinguish a morphologically homogeneous grammatical category of "reality status", traditionally postulated in some American indigenous languages. The respective semantic functions are not encompassed in a sole category, but are rather distributed among different grammatical and lexical items. However, the importance of the semantic domain of irreality in Q'eqchi' grammar should not be completely discarded. The morphosyntactic interconnection between certain grammatical elements (like the suffix-q/-aq, which is triggered on intransitive verbs by the prefix t-) and the diachronic semantic change of some clitics (for example, the enclitic ta changed its meaning from optative to counterfactual) are arranged according to semantic principles within the irreality domain.

La presente tesis es un estudio acerca de los marcadores de aspecto y modo (MAM) en el Maaya T’aan. La investigación se particularizó a la región Oriente del estado de Yucatán. La importancia de trabajar el tema de los marcadores de AM como tesis radica en que es necesario analizar y definir criterios para el reconocimiento de los marcadores como tales, esta necesidad conllevó a identificar cuántos, cuáles y las características particulares de los marcadores de AM en uso en la región Oriente.

Since the 1970s hundreds of looted ceramics of related style have found their way into public and private collections around the world through the international antiquities and black markets. These objects were later found to have come from the archaeological site of El Zotz, Guatemala. Since their original context has been occluded and their stratigraphic information has been lost, traditional archaeological seriation has proven difficult to develop and apply to these objects. Through the application of formal analysis and paleographic scrutiny, though, some of the original social contexts as well as a partial chronological sequence for them can be recreated. Since some of these vessels contain the names of kings on them, this relative chronology allows for the reconstruction of a dynastic sequence. Demonstrating stylistic change over time, it also reflects the iconographic and conceptual development of particular spiritual practices. It is hoped that this study will provide a methodological framework for future research of problematic collections, which is the status of most Maya ceramics.

 Naq ab'anoon [knock ob-on own] = cómo estás? = how are you doing? [how ar yuu duu ing]  Naq naab'an [knock knob-on] = que haces? = what are you doing? [wat ar yuu duu ing]  Naq k'a [knock k-aw] = quien es, que es = who is it, what is it [huu is it, wat is it]  Jaru' ajuunaa' [ha roo-ah hoon gnaw-] = cuantos años tiene? = how old are you? [how ōōld ar yuu]  Jaru' rajil? [ha roo-raw hēēl] = cuanto cuesta? = how much is it? [how much is it]  Jaru' nuuk'aas [ha roo-new k-aws] = cuanto debo? = how much do I owe you? [how much duu ay ōō yuu]  Jar atet k'a naq chi saamaajiil naab'an [har aw tet k-aw knock chēē sawm ah hēēl knob-on] = tú, que trabajo haces? = what kind of work do you do? [wat kaynd of wurk duu yuu duu]  ¡Jo'! [hō-] = vamos! = let's go! [letz gōō]  B'aar at petinaq wi'? [b-are ought pet ēē knock wē-] = de donde viene? = where are you from? [wer ar yuu from]  Kinakuyu'/cha nuumak [key naw koo you-/chaw new mock] = perdoname = excuse me [eks kuus mee]  Kinok'ona' awik'iin [key naw koo you-/chaw new mock] = con permiso = excuse me [eks kuus mee]  Ninb'e pa kayib'al [nēēn bay pa ki yēē ball] = voy al mercado = I am (I'm) going to the market [ay'm gōō ing to tha market]  Naq q'iij xaturqaji' [knock k-ey shot oor kah he-] = cuando llegaste = When did you arrive? [wen did yu ar ayve]  Wuqub'iixir xinurqaji' [wook oob-ēēsh ear sheen oor kah hēē-] = llegue la semana pasada = I arrived last week [ay ar ayvd last wik]  Nk'atzin chuwee' ninb'e chuwaaq pa Chichicastenango [n k-atz ēēn choo vay-nēēn b-ay choo walk paw Chee chee cast en ang o] = necesito irme a Chichicastenango mañana = I need to go to Chichicastenango tomorrow [ay nid tu gō tu Chi chi cast en ang ō tum or ōō]  ¡Tachajij aawii'! [tawch aw hēē ah wēē] = ¡Cuida te! = Be careful! [bēē cair ful]  Q'ila' chik na [k-ey law-chēēk gnaw] =¡Nos Vemos! = see you later! [see yuu lāātur]  ¡Xtiqaatz'at chik na qii'! [shtēē cawtz-ought chēē gnaw key-] = ¡Nos Vemos! = See you later! [sēē yuu lāāt ur]  K'o/K'ooli jun [k-ōh/ k-ōh lee hoon] = hay un/a = there is a(n) [ther is aa(an)]  Taya'a' [tie yaw-ah-] = da me = give me [giv mēē]  Tab'ana' jun utziil [tawb-awn aw-hoon ootz ēēl] = hágame un favor = do me a favor [do mēē ā fāv ur]  Maltiyoox [mall tēē yōsh] = gracias = thank you (thanks) [thank yuu (thanks)]  Sib'alaj maltiyoox [seeb-all ah mall tēē yōsh] = muchas gracias = thank you very much (thanks very much) [thank yuu ver ēē much (thanks ver ēē much)]  Jee' [hay'] = sí (afirmación) = yeah (affirmation) [yeh]  Ma [maw] = no (negación) = no (negation) [nōō]  Kan [con] = sí = yes [yes]  Ma kan ta [maw con taw] = no = no [nōō]  Ma k'o ta [maw k-ōh taw] = no hay = there is not [ther is not] Interrogatives (Interrogativos)  B'aar chi ri (tri) [b-are trēē] = dónde, adónde = where [wer]  B'ajan [b-a hawn] = cuándo = when [wen]  Jaru' [ha roo-] = cuánto = how much [how much]  Jani' [ha nēē-] = cómo = how [how]  Naq [knock] = qué, quién = what, who [wat, hoo]  Naq chi re (tre) [knock tray] = por qué = why [way]