Mayan Language (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what the Mayan language is, its history and characteristics. Also, examples of Mayan words, poems and riddles.

What is the Mayan language?

The Yucatec Maya is commonly called the Mayan language or Mayan language, that is, the indigenous language of the Yucatan Peninsula south of Mexico (states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche). It belongs to the surviving body of the Mayan languages (spoken in Belize, Guatemala and southeastern Mexico), the main Mesoamerican language family.

In Mexico, the Mayan language It is the second indigenous language with the largest number of speakers after Nahuatl. Today it is spoken by more than 800,000 people in the national territory, along with about 5,000 in Belize and 700 in Guatemala.

Furthermore, according to the government of the latter country, 25 languages are spoken in its territory, of which 22 qualify as Mayan languages (with a common trunk to the Yucatecan Mayan).

In these regions the Mayan language is widely used, both for school teaching, domestic life and local economic transactions. It has been recognized since 2003 as one of the national languages of the Mexican State.

History of the Mayan language

All Mayan languages are descendants of a Proto-Mayan language that dates back approximately 5,000 years. It emerged in the Mesoamerican area and diversified very quickly into a set of Mayan languages, a family of languages that exhibit enormous similarities. Some of them were written, in pre-Columbian America, using glyphs.

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Writing was common during the classic stage of the Mayan Culture (c. 250-900 AD), and many of his bark-paper codices have survived to the present day. Together with the rich colonial Mayan literature of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, they constitute very important documents for the understanding of Mesoamerica prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

Thanks to this, the Mayan language family is one of the most documented and known in all of America. cover 22 official languages in Guatemala and 8 in Mexico the Yucatecan Mayan being just one of them.

Characteristics of the Mayan language

In general terms, the Mayan language It is a synthetic and thrifty language, which is based on monosyllabic morphemes. Although it economizes on vowels, it does not produce long consonant strings or vowel groupings. There are no articles, no gender, nor the infinitive mood.

Many of his verbs also function as nouns, and he uses an apostrophe to separate repeated letters. The entire language can be written today with Latin characters.

Phonetically, in Yucatec Maya voiceless consonant sounds abound, as well as glottalized consonants (pronounced at the end of the throat). It has five vowels, like Spanish, which can be long, and also two glottalized vowels. It also has two tones, one high and one low, and its pronunciation is usually fast and complex.