Comparative and Historical Yukatekan Maya

一千五百年前，古典玛雅文明在墨西哥和危地马拉的低地森林中蓬勃发展。他们发明了新大陆上最复杂的文字系统，并将他们的历史记录在石碑上。今天，他们的后代，尤卡提坎人和奇兰玛雅人，继续生活在大致相同的地区。这项研究集中在尤卡特科的分支，其中包括伊扎伊，莫潘，拉坎顿和尤卡特科玛雅，目的是创建一个比较词源学词典。霍夫林博士已经为每个家庭成员编制了大量的数字数据库，但额外的信息是必不可少的。实地考察将集中在莫潘和伊扎伊玛雅，这两种语言都是危地马拉北部的濒危语言。选择伊扎伊语是因为它是该家族中最濒危的语言，只有几十位老人还在说它。选择磨盘语是因为它是玛雅语族中尤卡提坎语分支中记录最少、差异最大的成员。本项目旨在通过在危地马拉三季的实地考察，扩大我们对这些语言词汇的了解。研究结果将扩充伊扎伊语和莫潘语的数据库和词典，以玛雅-西班牙-英语三种语言的形式制作，同时还将制作一本词源学词典，展示每一种尤卡特坎语在过去一千年中的词汇历史。该词典将成为追踪Yukatekan使用者的语言和文化历史的重要工具，并为破译玛雅象形文字提供重要信息。十多年来，墨西哥和危地马拉的玛雅人一直致力于记录和振兴他们的语言和文化。他们对保护自己的语言和更多地了解自己的文化遗产非常感兴趣。同样，拉丁美洲移民到美国也想了解和保护他们的文化遗产。除了专业的人类学和语言学观众外，这项研究的成果应该对这些观众感兴趣和有用。除了作为语言历史描述的重要性之外，它还将为古典玛雅人的象形文字铭文与他们的后代今天所说的语言之间提供联系。

Hofling abstract 0445231Fifteen hundred years ago the Classic Maya civilization flourished in the lowland forests of Mexico and Guatemala. They developed the most sophisticated writing system to appear in the New World and recorded their history on stone monuments. Today their descendants, the Yukatekan and Ch'olan Maya, continue to live in much the same territory. This research centers on the Yukatekan branch of the family, which includes Itzaj, Mopan, Lakantun, and Yukateko Maya, with the aim of creating a comparative etymological dictionary. Dr. Hofling has compiled substantial digital databases for each member of the family, but additional information is essential. Fieldwork will focus on Mopan and Itzaj Maya, both endangered languages spoken in northern Guatemala. Itzaj is chosen because it is the most critically endangered languages of the family, with only a couple of dozen elders who still speak it. Mopan is chosen because it is the least documented and most divergent member of the Yukatekan branch of the Mayan language family. This project is designed to expand our knowledge of the vocabularies of these languages based on three seasons of fieldwork in Guatemala. The results will be expanded databases and dictionaries of Itzaj and Mopan, produced in a tri-lingual Maya-Spanish-English format, as well as an etymological dictionary showing the history of words in each of the Yukatekan languages over the past millenium. The dictionary will be an important tool for tracing the linguistic and cultural history of Yukatekan speakers and provide critical information for the decipherment of the Mayan hieroglyphic script.Mayans in Mexico and Guatemala have been engaged in efforts to document and revitalize their languages and cultures for more than a decade. They are deeply interested in preserving their languages and learning more about their cultural heritage. Similarly, Latin American immigrants to the United States want to learn about and preserve their cultural patrimony. The products of this research should be of interest and use to these audiences in addition to professional anthropological and linguistic audiences. In addition to its importance as a description of linguistic history, it will provide a link between the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classic Maya and the languages spoken by their descendants today.