A Dictionary of the Maya LanguageA Dictionary of the Maya Language
The Maya language of Yucatan is known as Yucate by linguists, but its speakers refer to it as May. Dialiectical differences are minimal across the peninsula, and the more than 750,000 speakers of Maya can be understood wherever they go. Moreover, it is not only a living language but is of great use to epigraphers working on ancient Maya glyphs.
This dictionary is the culmination of fourteen years’ labor centering on the town and dialect of Hocaba. Whereas other dictionaries of may use Latin paradigms, this is the first to provide a comprehensive, systematic listing of the stems that can be derived from each root and that give Maya its distinctive character. The entries cover the full range of Maya speech, from simple expressions and idioms to compound stems. Maya sample sentences provide a window into the richness of everyday communication, with its mixture of wit, epithets, insults, riddles, aphorisms, and exchanges of information, including a wonderful assortment of metaphorical expressions like "peccary’s eyelashes" for a type of bean, "the end of the road" for marriage, and a verb meaning "to draw breath with puckered mouth after eating chili." Among the cultural domains encompassed by the dictionary are agriculture, architecture, astronomy, culinary practices and recipes, education, folklore, games, humor, medical prescriptions, ritual, toys, and weaving, many of which have roots in the Precolumbian past. In addition to the dictionary entries, this work also contains a short grammar, a botanical index, and bibliography.
Rather than the Latin-based arrangement used in other dictionaries of what linguists call Yacutec and the speakers call Maya, systematically lists the stems that can be derived from each root and that give the language its distinctive character. Includes many sample sentences, epitaphs, insults, riddles, aphorisms, and other elements in the mother tongue of 750,000 people on the peninsula. Among the paraphernalia are a guide to pronunciation, a short grammar, a botanical index, and a bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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- Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press, 1998.
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