Comparative and Historical Yukatekan Maya

1500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。他们发展了最复杂的书写系统，出现在新大陆，并将他们的历史记录在石碑上。今天，他们的后代，尤卡坦玛雅人和乔兰玛雅人，继续生活在大致相同的领土上。本研究以Yukatekan家族的分支为中心，包括Itzaj，Mopan，Lakantun和Yukateko Maya，旨在创建一个比较词源词典。Hofling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。实地工作将侧重于Mopan和Itzaj玛雅语，这两种语言都在危地马拉北方使用，濒临灭绝。选择Itzaj是因为它是该家族中最濒危的语言，只有几十个长老仍然说它;选择Mopan是因为它是玛雅语系Yukatekan分支中记录最少，最分歧的成员。该项目旨在根据在危地马拉进行的三个季节的实地考察，扩大我们对这些语言词汇的了解。其成果将是扩大Itzaj和Mopan的数据库和词典，以玛雅-西班牙-英语三种语言的格式制作，以及一本词源词典，显示过去一千年尤卡坦语中每一种语言的词汇历史。这本词典将成为追溯尤卡坦语使用者的语言和文化历史的重要工具，并为解读玛雅象形文字提供重要信息，墨西哥和危地马拉的玛雅人十多年来一直致力于记录和振兴其语言和文化。他们对保护自己的语言和更多地了解自己的文化遗产深感兴趣。同样，拉丁美洲移民到美国希望了解和保护他们的文化遗产。除了专业的人类学和语言学受众之外，这项研究的产品应该对这些受众感兴趣和有用。除了作为语言历史描述的重要性外，它还将提供古典玛雅象形文字铭文与其后代今天所说的语言之间的联系。

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.