Table Of Content

/nava 1ictionary & cPhrasebook M aya-E nglish English-M aya John M ontgom D ictionary & Phrasebooks Albanian Lao Romanized Arabic Latvian Arabic (Eastern) Romanized Lithuanian Armenian (Eastern) Malagasy Armenian (Western) Maltese M AYA-EN GLISH Australian Mongolian Azerbaijani Nepali Romanized ENGLISH-MAYA Basque Norwegian Bosnian Pashto Romanized (Yucatec) Breton Pilipino (Tagalog) British Portuguese (Brazilian) Dictionary & Phrasebook Cajun French Punjabi Chechen Québécois Croatian Romanian Czech Romansch Danish Russian Dari Romanized Serbian Romanized Esperanto Shona John Montgomery Estonian Sicilian Finnish Slovak French Slovene Georgian Somali German Spanish (Latin American) Greek Swahili Hebrew Swedish Hindi Tajik Hungarian Tamil Romanized Igbo Thai Romanized Ilocano Turkish Irish Ukrainian Italian Urdu Romanized Japanese Romanized Uzbek Korean Vietnamese Hippocrene Boors, Inc. New York Overview of Maya Grammar 23 Sentence Structure 23 INTRODUCTION Verb Forms 24 Aspect 24 Pronominal Affixes 25 Set A 25 Set B 26 Set C 27 Incompletive Intransitives 27 Incompletive Transitives 30 When I lecture on Maya culture and Pre Completive Intransitives 32 columbian civilization someone almost always Completive lYansitives 34 asks me what happened to the Maya people. Subjunctive Verbs 36 There seems to be a notion among segments of Passive Verbs 37 the public that when the civilization vanished, so “Irregular” Verbs 37 did the Maya, erased along with their lost world Auxiliaries 38 of jungle-shrouded pyramids. Stative Verbs 40 Nothing could be farther from the truth. “Have” Verbs 41 Approximately ten million Native Americans still Noun Phrases 41 speak Mayan, one of the largest continuous blocks Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases 42 of indigenous people on the American continents. Plurals 43 Some thirty to thirty-four separate “versions” of Demonstratives 43 Mayan are still spoken over large areas of Mexico, Possessives 44 including the modern states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Requests 45 Vera Cruz, Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán. Questions 45 Mayan is also spoken in the Central American Phrase Markers 46 countries of Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Discourse Markers 46 The present dictionary and phrasebook offer Quantifiers 47 a selection of the most common words and Numerical Classifiers 47 useful phrases in what linguists generally call Yucatec Maya, probably the largest group of Maya-English Dictionary 49 Mayan speakers. The book also includes a broad range of items of interest to travelers, students, English-Maya Dictionary 87 and scholars. Spoken over virtually the entirety of Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán—that Phrasebook 137 is, the Yucatán Peninsula—and isolated areas of Belize, as well as neighboring El Petén in 1 VI Maya-English/English-Maya (Yucatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook Guatemala, Yucatec Maya constitutes the lan and most useful way possible. While a complete guage generally referred to as “Maya” for histor explanation of grammar lies outside the scope of ical reasons. Actually “Maya,” both culturally and the presentation, I do discuss the basic rules— linguistically, derives from a sixteenth-century offering something of a “refresher” for those application of “Mayathan” or “Mayat’aan,” who have experience with the language, making meaning literally, “Maya language” (maya + intelligible why the language works the way it t’aan “language”). What early Europeans failed does for beginners, and as a quick reference. to understand was that “Maya” referred to the However, a number of complicated issues have language spoken by the group of people with been omitted or greatly simplified in the interest whom they were then in contact, and that it bore of ease of use. only an affinity with other languages spoken in Each Maya word or phrase includes its pho nearby areas. Each of these languages identifies netic pronunciation, plus the Spanish equivalent, itself by its own singular name: Quiche, Tzotsil, since most communication in Mexico and Central Tzeltal, and so on. It was linguists who perpetu America takes place in that language. This book ated the name “Mayan” in reference to all of assumes some prior knowledge of Spanish, so these related groups. these entries lack pronunciation guides. Strictly speaking, then, “Maya” refers only to Maya arises out of an incredibly rich cultural “Mayat’aan,” the language linguists call Yucatec. tradition, one that holds a great deal of interest For clarity, this book will use “Maya” only for for people from outside the Maya world. From that branch, while identifying others as “Quiche ancient pyramids to unique cuisine to personal Maya,” “Cakchiquel Maya,” and so on, with the relationships, many different experiences make understanding that “Mayan” refers to the larger this area one of the most interesting in Latin language group. The main thing to remember is America. It is hoped that the present dictionary that Maya means Yucatec, Mayan the language and phrasebook will help facilitate those experi group as a whole. ences, and promote a more lasting appreciation To my knowledge, this is the first combination of Mayat’aan—the Maya language. dictionary/phrasebook in Maya/English and Eng lish/Maya ever published. (See Methods of Learning Maya.) As such, it allows for the use of Maya in most contexts where Spanish would nor mally be used, although such opportunities are rare for most travelers. Essentially, this book offers “Maya in a nutshell,” distilling the essence of the language and focusing on areas of general interest. The goal is to present essential informa tion about the language in the simplest, clearest, Introduction 3 2 Maya-English/English-Maya (Yucatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MAYAN LANGUAGE GROUP Ancient and W ritten Mayan Archaeologists have found evidence of farming villages on the Yucatán Peninsula dating back to at least 1200 b.c., and we know that even before that date primitive hunter-gatherers foraged for jungle and coastal resources. Whether these were Mayan speakers remains uncertain. Linguists argue that, based on sound changes among the various branches of Mayan, there was a single dominant language as early as 2000 B.C., called Proto-Mayan, which began to evolve into several major divisions not long afterwards. Yucatec, or “Maya,” emerged as a separate branch of this larger language family by around 1000 b.c. Today the “Yucatecan” branch includes Yucatec proper, or Maya, as well as Lacandon, Itzá, and Mopan. Certainly Yucatec Maya has a continuous history of at least three thousand years. Mayan speakers created the high Precolumbian civilization of the Classic Period, which flourished from about a.d. 250 to 900. Whatever dialect they spoke, they were responsible for perhaps the greatest intellectual achievement of Native Amer ican history—the invention of a fully developed written script, or Maya hieroglyphic writing. While scholars long have believed the glyphs record 5 predominantly a Cholan Maya language, speakers various social changes and introduced features of of Yucatec Maya were writing in books made from material culture. bark paper when Cortés and his Spanish conquis Even before this a variety of peoples had tadors arrived in the early sixteenth century, and penetrated the Maya area from central Mexico the closely related Itzá Maya were still main and elsewhere, establishing political control in taining books as late as 1697. Clearly, Mayan— some cases over local populations. Overall, what written in its own native system—has a longer resulted were sundry “borrowings” from the Mexican Nahuatl language (or one of its variants), history than either written English (eighth century as well as intermarriage between these distinct a.d.) or Spanish (eleventh century a.d.). groups of people. Following the Spanish conquest, a few Mayan Through Nahuatl new personal names were speakers wrote their language with European introduced to the Maya, as well as words for characters, producing works of epic literature things and places (for example, máasewáal and “chronicles.” The manuscripts known as “Indian, Maya,” from Nahuatl macehuali, “free the books of Chilam Balam constitute some of the commoner”). best-known literature of the latter type, detailing Spain’s conquest of the New World in the six great epochs in Maya history. This series of doc teenth century inevitably destroyed much of uments was widely published in both Spanish Native American civilization, and although fero and English translations. In more recent years, ciously resistant, the Maya also succumbed. With epigraphers, or decipherers of hieroglyphs, have the wholesale introduction by the conquerors reintroduced to native speakers the original of new foods, methods of cooking, clothing, hieroglyphic system, a renaissance taken up with weapons, and social and political institutions, the alacrity by speakers of different branches of the Maya were forced to adapt in different ways. They Mayan language group. did so not least by employing Spanish words for things of which they had no experience, and even for some familiar things. Examples include N ahuatl and Spanish Loanwords asukaar, from the Spanish azúcar “sugar,” áamigoh from the Spanish amigo “friend,” and With the collapse of Classic Maya civilization in paapah, from the Spanish papá “father.” the ninth and tenth centuries a.d., widespread Spanish continues to encroach on the Maya cultural change took place throughout Pre world (and almost as importantly, English now columbian America. Eventually the Aztec empire does so as well). Most Maya men have to be bilin emerged as the most powerful civilization in gual because of contacts beyond their villages, Precolumbian history. Speakers of the Aztec and they can switch back and forth between language, which is called Nahuatl, ranged far Spanish and their own language in the middle of down the coasts of Honduras and Panama. They conversation, a process called code-shifting. were mostly traders and merchants who brought However, pronunciation of Spanish tends to be 6 Maya-English/Engush-Maya (Yicatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook A Brief History of the Mayan Language Group 7 “Mayanized” by lengthening the vowels, changing the location of accents, adding the characteristic METHODS OF Maya singsong tonality and pitch, and substi tuting Maya sounds for Spanish ones not found LEARNING MAYA in Maya. At the same time Maya speakers retain traditional Spanish pronunciation for technical terms. In particular, Spanish proper and personal names remain a prominent feature of today’s spoken Maya. As with any language, the process of learning M odern Maya Maya may seem at first overwhelming. Unfa miliar sounds can strike the ear of the beginner as Ancient Maya and Colonial Maya from the six impossibly complex, especially when spoken teenth and seventeenth centuries differ consider rapidly. Difficulty in distinguishing where one ably from Modern Maya, and many terms and word begins and another ends can hopelessly conventions regularly used in the past have fallen confuse the student, even a vigilant one. away. Moreover, because modem Maya for the In contrast, like languages everywhere around most part remains a spoken language as opposed the world, Maya becomes far easier to learn when to a written one, and because speech constantly the student listens and familiarizes his- or herself changes and adapts, Maya lacks uniformity with the sound of the language. Familiarity among its several million speakers. There really breeds affinity, even endearment, with the spoken is no such thing as “pure Maya” or “standard language, while the mind’s inner ear and subcon Maya.” The historical tendency of the Maya to scious quietly absorb what we learn, often with seek isolation and independence led to numerous much greater depth than the conscious mind real “sub-dialects,” and just about every Maya has his izes. The true seat of language belongs to the sub or her own way of speaking. Regional variations conscious, which stores information about exist as well. Speakers of Maya can readily under language very much like an automated dictionary stand each other (although not necessarily other and grammar. branches of Mayan such as Quiche or Tzotsil), but Anyone interested in learning Maya can choose the situation poses some difficulty for speakers from several approaches, depending on what goal of Maya as a foreign language. Changes in the he or she has in mind. An informal conversational language from one village to another and from command of Maya for personal reasons probably one area to the next can be very confusing for can best be achieved through “total immersion.” the beginner. On the other hand, a more scholarly interest might require formal classroom instruction or the use of language tapes. Certainly all serious 8 Maya-English/English-Maya (Ylcatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook 9 students will master spoken Maya most thor Fobmal Classroom Instruction oughly by availing themselves of every resource that time and money allow. Highly efficient but more formally organized and structured than either total immersion or one-on- one contact with an instructor, formal classroom T otal Immersion instruction offers an extremely valuable resource, especially when conducted by native speakers To totally absorb the language, the student should or where native speakers serve as teacher assis visit the Yucatán Peninsula and live among the tants. A main disadvantage is that students may Maya for as extended a period as possible. Total not receive enough personal attention or may fail immersion involves living, eating, and sleeping to keep up with the classroom pace. Duke Uni with a Maya family. Daily routine and habitual versity provides the best-known program, con exposure to the language “immerses” the student ducted for four weeks during the summer months in all things Maya. Such an approach probably through the Institute of Latin American Studies. offers the quickest and most surefire way to learn The program offers an optional two-week field school with one-on-one instruction and total the language, but will probably cost more than immersion, conducted on the Yucatán Peninsula. other methods. Generally students can simply approach individual Maya or their families and hire them as teachers. Language schools, usually Language Tapes/C D s operated out of Mérida, often place students with Maya families to supplement one-on-one instruc Language tapes offer a key tool for anyone wanting tion through trained teachers. to learn Maya. They allow students to listen to and learn Maya outside the classroom and without live native speakers. With this method, personal One-on-O ne Formal Education ized learning can take place in a variety of set tings, for example, while driving an automobile or Probably the second quickest (and second most in the privacy of the home. Currently only one reliable) method involves the pairing of students complete audio language course exists, Spoken with a native Maya speaker who acts either as an (Yucatec) Maya by Robert Blair and Refugio Ver- informal teacher or trained instructor. Usually mont-Salas, which was produced in the 1960s. A language academies offer this kind of instruction, xeroxed transcription of the tapes can be ordered generally in Mérida but also elsewhere on the separately from the University of Chicago Library peninsula. Virtually any Maya speaker willing to (Microfilm Collection of Manuscripts on Amer teach will suffice, although professionally trained ican Indian Cultural Anthropology, numbers teachers often prove more valuable for students 65-66, Series X). The tapes are available from the seeking academic knowledge of the language. University’s language library. 10 Maya-English/English-Maya (Yucatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook Methods of Learning Maya 11 I >l< TIO NIA NIKS PRONUNCIATION AND Dictionaries and grammars provide crucial SPELLING GUIDE resources for any student, and students should develop a reference library with as many pub lished and privately printed resources as pos sible. Gary Bevington’s Maya For Travelers and Students: A Guide to Language and Culture in Yucatan (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995) provides the most valuable and accessible com IVlaya and other members of the Mayan language pendium of modern Maya, including Maya-to- family use letters from the Spanish alphabet, omit English and English-to-Maya dictionaries. ting ones for which Mayan has no sounds and Bevington’s volume also comes with a separate adding combinations of letters for the Mayan language tape that provides introductory mate sounds that Spanish lacks. However, at the time rial, although the tape and dictionary are some of the Spanish conquest Spanish itself lacked times packaged together. A Dictionary of the consistency or even rules for basic punctuation, Maya Language As Spoken in Hocabá, Yucatan, and a large degree of variation resulted. Modem compiled by Victoria Bricker, Eleuterio Po’ot linguists transcribing Maya into English com Yah, and Ofelia Dzul de Po’ot, offers another pounded the problem. extensive if academic resource (University of Worse, today’s spelling conventions among Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1998). Many addi speakers of both Maya and Spanish vary tre tional locally published dictionaries can be mendously. Spanish alone presents something found in bookstores in Mérida and other towns of a nightmare; consider alternative spellings of on the peninsula, although these usually pro “cow”—vaca versus baca—or Jiménez versus vide Maya-to-Spanish entries. Ximénes. (Even English includes similar and confusing spellings or pronunciations, as for The best approach that any student can take is example “cock,” meaning “rooster,” versus the to combine the above resources into one system appelative “Coch” or “Koch”). atic course of study. Accordingly, anyone seriously The problem increases exponentially with interested in learning Maya should live with Maya, because certain sounds have no equivalent native speakers while undertaking one-on-one either in Spanish or English. A survey of dictio instruction, and then should follow with formal naries and maps turns up a confused array of classroom instruction and the regular use of lan spellings, as in ts’ib, tz’ib, and dzib for the word guage tapes. “writing.” Recently, native language academies have introduced a uniform alphabet, a system taken up 13 12 Maya-English/Engush-Maya (Yucatec) Dictionary & Phraserook by decipherers of Maya hieroglyphs and exem linguists sometimes glottalize other consonants, plified in the massive Maya/Spanish dictionary for example b’, but these make no difference published in Mexico, known as the Cordemex. in meaning. The present dictionary ignores the Although often used inconsistently, the system glottalization of consonants except the frve listed has an advantage of fairly wide acceptance. The above. present dictionary follows the Cordemex with the exception that it retains traditional spellings for personal and place names used in the Maya area Vowels and on maps (for example, Dzibalchaltun instead of Tz’ibalchaltun), and it distinguishes long and Maya uses the same vowels as Spanish, but dis short vowels. tinguishes between long and short ones. Length ening the vowel changes the meaning of a word. The present book doubles long vowels when these Glottal Stops make a difference in meaning, for example ka’ “two” versus kaa ’ “again.” Short vowels should be Like the click sounds made in certain African languages, the “glottal stop” poses a distinct pronounced as follows: problem for non-native speakers. In the alphabet used to write Maya, ’ represents the sound made A The sound of a in “father” in stopping the breath which is similar to the E The sound of a in “fate” stoppage of air in English uh-oh or in button I The sound of ee in “feet” when spoken rapidly. Pronounced simultaneously 0 The sound of o in “go” with the vowel or consonant that it accompanies, U The sound of o in “who” the glottal stop gives a characteristic “pop” to the sound. Long vowels incorporate a system of tonality Glottal stops might pose little problem if they that differentiates meaning. The present dictio carried no meaning, but the distinction between nary renders high-toned long vowels by adding an kab (without the stop) and k’ab (with the stop) accent over the first vowel, while it leaves low- represents an important difference. The one toned long vowels unmarked—for example, áa means “bee,” the other “manual labor.” This is (“high” tone) and aa (“low” tone). simüar to the difference between sweet and sweat in English. The glottal stop changes everything. Any vowel can be glottalized, but Maya includes only five glottalized consonants where the glottal Consonants stop changes the meaning. Maya employs nineteen consonants, with all but ch’ k’ p’ t’ tz’ six consonants pronounced like their Spanish 14 Maya-English/English-Maya (Yucatec) Dictionary & Phrasebook Pronunciation and Spelling Guide 15