Yucatec Maya Language Revitalization Efforts Among Professional Educators in the State of Yucatán, México

Yucatec Maya Language Revitalization Efforts Among Professional Educators in the State of Yucatán, México
Author: Felipe Acosta-Munoz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2019-09-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9783346031044

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Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, North Carolina State University, language: English, abstract: Indigenous languages throughout the Americas are endangered. For instance, in Mexico 16% of the national population spoke an indigenous language in 1930; that is more than 14 million people at that time. In 2015, only 6.6% of the total population or 7'382.785 people currently speak an indigenous language in Mexico. Even for Yucatec Maya, the second most spoken indigenous language in Mexico with more than 795, 000 speakers, intergenerational transmission of the language to new generations is compromised. In the summer of 2018, I completed my research in the state of Yucatan, with the purpose of gathering data on the efforts educators, social scientists, and other proactive participants engaged in to revitalize Yucatec Maya. A second purpose was to obtain the ideologies and experiences they bring to their profession in its revitalization. My field methods included observation, informant interviewing, and collecting of printed material in Yucatec Maya as well as digital collection of material by taking photos, and I collected my data in the urban centers of Merida and Valladolid. Despite lukewarm efforts of financial support for Maya language revitalization from the government, my data shows that my participants unanimously agree that there is insufficient legislative enforcing action to secure the linguistic and cultural rights of Maya speakers in Yucatan as delineated in the Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas (General Law of Indigenous Peoples' Linguistic Rights) in Mexico. Among the linguistic and cultural rights my participants identify as weak there is poor infrastructure and insufficient number of indigenous schools, lack of sufficient qualified educators to teach Maya, lack of meaningful Maya pedagogic material production and distribution, and an almost non-existent offering of public ser

Koʹox Tʹaano on Ich Máaya

Koʹox Tʹaano on Ich Máaya
Author: Felipe Esteban Acosta Munoz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

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Maya for Travelers and Students

Maya for Travelers and Students
Author: Gary Bevington
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2010-06-28
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0292791895

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The Yucatan Peninsula draws many North American and European travelers each year to view the ruins of the pre-Columbian Classical Maya civilization and the abundant native flora and fauna. For these travelers, as well as armchair travelers and students, Gary Bevington has prepared the first general English-language introduction to Yucatec Maya, the native language of the people indigenous to the region. Written in nontechnical terms for learners who have a basic knowledge of simple Mexican Spanish, the book presents easily understood, practical information for anyone who would like to communicate with the Maya in their native language. In addition to covering the pronunciation and grammar of Maya, Bevington includes invaluable tips on learning indigenous languages "in the field." Most helpful are his discussions of the cultural and material worlds of the Maya, accompanied by essential words and expressions for common objects and experiences. A Maya-English-Spanish glossary with extensive usage examples and an English-Maya glossary conclude the book. Note: The supplemental audiocasette, Spoken Maya for Travelers and Students, is now available as a free download.

Referential Practice

Referential Practice
Author: William F. Hanks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 624
Release: 1990-12-07
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780226315454

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Referential Practice is an anthropological study of language use in a contemporary Maya community. It examines the routine conversational practices in which Maya speakers make reference to themselves and to each other, to their immediate contexts, and to their world. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Oxkutzcab, Yucatán, William F. Hanks develops a sociocultural approach to reference in natural languages. The core of this approach lies in treating speech as a social engagement and reference as a practice through which actors orient themselves in the world. The conceptual framework derives from cultural anthropology, linguistic pragmatics, interpretive sociology, and cognitive semantics. As his central case, Hanks undertakes a comprehensive analysis of deixis—linguistic forms that fix reference in context, such as English I, you, this, that, here, and there. He shows that Maya deixis is a basic cultural construct linking language with body space, domestic space, agricultural and ritual practices, and other fields of social activity. Using this as a guide to ethnographic description, he discovers striking regularities in person reference and modes of participation, the role of perception in reference, and varieties of spatial orientation, including locative deixis. Traditionally considered a marginal area in linguistics and virtually untouched in the ethnographic literature, the study of referential deixis becomes in Hanks's treatment an innovative and revealing methodology. Referential Practice is the first full-length study of actual deictic use in a non-Western language, the first in-depth study of speech practice in Yucatec Maya culture, and the first detailed account of the relation between routine conversation, embodiment, and ritual discourse.

Experiential Constructions in Yucatec Maya

Experiential Constructions in Yucatec Maya
Author: Elisabeth Verhoeven
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2007-03-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027292574

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This book combines a fieldwork-based language-specific analysis with a typological investigation. It offers a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the form and semantics of experiencer constructions in Yucatec, the Mayan language of the Yucatecan peninsula in Mexico. Since the linguistic expression of experience is not restricted to a specific grammatical area the study touches a great variety of grammatical fields in the language such as argument structure, grammatical relations, possessive constructions, subordinate constructions, etc. The empirical analysis of the Yucatec data is preceded by a thorough examination of the functional domain and the cross-linguistic coding of experience which until now could not be found in the literature. This study will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of typology and Native American linguistics, and especially to those interested in argument structure and the syntax-semantics interface.

The Life of Our Language

The Life of Our Language
Author: Susan Garzon
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0292788991

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The native Maya peoples of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize have been remarkably successful in maintaining their cultural identity during centuries of contact with and domination by outside groups. Yet change is occurring in all Mayan communities as contact with Spanish-speaking Ladino society increases. This book explores change and continuity in one of the most vital areas of Mayan culture—language use. The authors look specifically at Kaqchikel, one of the most commonly spoken Mayan languages. Following an examination of language contact situations among indigenous groups in the Americas, the authors proceed to a historical overview of the use of Kaqchikel in the Guatemalan Highlands. They then present case studies of three highland communities in which the balance is shifting between Kaqchikel and Spanish. Wuqu' Ajpub', a native Kaqchikel speaker, gives a personal account of growing up negotiating between the two languages and the different world views they encode. The authors conclude with a look at the Mayan language revitalization movement and offer a scenario in which Kaqchikel and other Mayan languages can continue to thrive.

An Epoch of Miracles

An Epoch of Miracles
Author:
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2014-06-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0292771460

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“Mr. Allan Burns, I am here to tell you an example, the example of the Hunchbacks.” So said Paulino Yamá, traditionalist and storyteller, to Allan Burns, anthropologist and linguist, as he began one story that found its way into this book. Paulino Yamá was just one of several master storytellers from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico from whom Burns learned not only the Mayan language but also the style and performance of myths, stories, riddles, prayers, and other forms of speech of their people. The result is An Epoch of Miracles, a wonderfully readable yet thoroughly scholarly set of translations from the oral literature of the Yucatec Maya, an important New World tradition never before systematically described. An Epoch of Miracles brings us over thirty-five long narratives of things large, small, strange, and “regular” and as many delightful short pieces, such as bird lore, riddles, and definitions of anteaters, rainbows, and other commonplaces of the Mayan world. Here are profound narratives of the Feathered Serpent, the mighty Rain God Chac and his helpers, and the mysterious cult of the Speaking Cross. But because these are modern, “Petroleum Age” Maya, here too are a discussion with Cuba’s Fidel Castro and a greeting to former president Richard Nixon. All pieces are translated ethnopoetically; examples of several genres are presented bilingually. An especially valuable feature is the indication of performance style, such as pauses and voice quality, given with each piece.

Revitalizing Endangered Languages

Revitalizing Endangered Languages
Author: Justyna Olko
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-01-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 110862443X

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Of the approximately 7,000 languages in the world, at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of the twenty-first century. Languages are endangered by a number of factors, including globalization, education policies, and the political, economic and cultural marginalization of minority groups. This guidebook provides ideas and strategies, as well as some background, to help with the effective revitalization of endangered languages. It covers a broad scope of themes including effective planning, benefits, wellbeing, economic aspects, attitudes and ideologies. The chapter authors have hands-on experience of language revitalization in many countries around the world, and each chapter includes a wealth of examples, such as case studies from specific languages and language areas. Clearly and accessibly written, it is suitable for non-specialists as well as academic researchers and students interested in language revitalization. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

B'Ajlom II Nkotz'i'j Publications' Yucatec Maya Phrasebook

B'Ajlom II Nkotz'i'j Publications' Yucatec Maya Phrasebook
Author: Sandra Chiguela
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2018-12-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781790690794

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The Ideal Easy-to-Read Yucatec Maya Phrasebook for Traveling in La Península de Yucatán, México. Yucatec Maya, also known as 'Maayat'aan', by those who speak it as their mother tongue, is one of several Mayan Languages spoken in México. In addition, the Yucatec Maya Language was used in the Mel Gibson Film "Apocalypto" (2006) and is one of the most widely spoken Mayan Languages in México. The book is comprised of three sections: a concise detailed grammar, phrasebook with multiple phrases for everyday interactions and a categorized and alphabetized vocabulary list.