As with many under resourced (and often indigenous) languages, resources may unintentionally record a specific dialect. Similarly, when learning from a teacher, they will speak in their own dialect, as there is rarely a "standardized" way of speaking. The teacher I've mostly learned from is from near Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán – but there are speakers further eastward across the entire peninsula. All this to say, if you have found this page since you are learning as well, hopefully my notes align with what you're hearing – and if they don't, it might be dialect!
Nouns
There is no grammatical gender in Yucatec Maya.
Plurality
Plurality can be marked with the suffix (o)'ob. When the noun ends in a vowel, the first o is dropped. For example, mesa'ob:tables. Otherwise, it is suffixed to the end, paalo'ob:children.
Personal Pronouns
In Mayanist literature, there are two types of pronouns: Set A and Set B. You are unlikely to hear them referred to as such by a native speaker, even one with grammatical training. You may hear Set A described as "dependent pronouns" (as they are dependent on being used as part of a phrase) and you may hear Set B described as "suffixes" (as they are suffixed to a verb stem). I am not a Mayanist, so I will be using the terms Dependent Pronouns and Suffixal Pronouns, amongst other terms, which will be made clear in their respective sections.
Dependent Pronouns
Dependent pronouns mark:
SUBJ of transitive verbs
SUBJ of imperfective intransitive verbs
Possession (POSS)
SG
PL
1
in
(e)k, ∅, k {verb}-e'ex
2
a
a {verb}-e'ex
3
u
u {verb}-o'ob
Where {verb} is used, this indicated that there will also be a suffix to the verb when the dependent pronoun is required. Additionally, some notes about 1PL. In Yucatán, k is the preferred form. When the aspect marker (as discussed below) is k, in casual speech, the dependent pronoun is dropped (rather than k k). In careful speech, it is realized as ek and thus (k ek). The suffixed form, k {verb}-e'ex is said to be used in the eastern part of the peninsula. Both Hofling and Andrade refer to the suffixal form as being an exclusive 1PL (as in, we but not you).
When the noun following the dependent pronoun begins with a vowel, there is a "harmony" letter that is prefixed to it. In the case of 1st person or 2nd person, it is w- (ex. otoch:house – in wotoch:my house) and for 3rd person, it is a y- (u yotoch:his or her house). The preceding w or y may be dropped in the case where it may be confused with a more common noun or phrase. For example, w may not be used with áanalte':book, in order to disambiguate it from áanal:below. Thus, a áanalte'o' rather than a wáanalte'o'.
An alternative eastern POSS form is k {verb}-o'on, such as k paalo'on:our child.
How to use these pronouns can be found in the more detailed sections below:
SUBJ of perfective and dependent intransitive verbs
Simple sentences with adjectives and nouns (he is, you are, etc.) Or put another way, "stative SUBJ with adjectives and nouns"Hoffling, pg 692
These are appended to the noun that the subject is. Thus, Parryen ⧸ I am Parry.
SG
PL
1
-en
-o'on
2
-ech
-e'ex
3
∅
-o'ob
Note that these are much the same as the independent pronouns below, minus the consonants at the beginning (or leti' in the case of 3SG/3PL).
Independent Pronouns
Independent pronouns answer the question "who", provide emphasis of the person (e.g. "you yourself"), and function as indirect pronouns (preceded by ti':to).
SG
PL
1
teen
to'on
2
teech
te'ex
3
leti'
letio'ob
Articles
There are no articles in Yucatec Maya. The definite article is assumed and the indefinite article can be considered the same as the demonstratives, described below.
Demonstratives
All demonstratives are preceded by le and the noun (or phrasal noun) is suffixed with either a', o', or e' to indicate the nearness to the speaker. Prior to the suffix just listed, there may be a plurality suffix (o)'ob, as well as a dependent pronoun, to indicate possession.
As worked example:
le in chambaalo'oba':these are my babies
{
demonstrative marker
POSS
noun
PL suffix
nearness
le
in
chambaal
o'ob
a'
∅
1SG.POSS
baby
PL
this
The nearness suffixes are as follows:
-a': near, this
-o': far, that
-e': over there, not physically present
An example without any optional items:
le úuricha':this snail
{
demonstrative marker
noun
nearness
le
úurich
a'
∅
snail
this
Suffixes
il
when used dependent pronouns, means "to be from somewhere", ex. Yucatanilen ⧸ I am from Yucatan. See also Something of Something possession below.
Body Parts
Many body parts are logical conjunctions of other body parts. For example, kaal:neck + k'ab:hand gives u kaal k'ab – what is the "neck of the hand"? The wrist!
Some additional examples below, in a general form. To grant possession, -il is still required (as seen below in the section on posession. Thus, u kaalil in k'ab ⧸ my wrist.
u kaal k'ab: wrist
u kaal ook: ankle
u yich ook: the ankle bone
u yaal k'ab: fingers
u neek' ich: pupil
Ich normally means "eye", but as you can see above, when used with another body part, it means the "protrusion of X", often referring to bones.
Aal is a variant of paal:child, normally used by women to jokingly(?) refer to their child, since aal also means "weight" or "heavy" (i.e. the burden of pregnancy and/or motherhood).
Verbs
todo
xáanchajen: I am late: xáan:slow - chaj:irregular suffix for turn an adjective into a verb? i.e. to become - 1SG Isaac says that -chaj- is "pasado"
Simple sentences
jach wi'ijen: I am very hungry
Possession
Possession is a structurally complex topic (see, Possession in Yucatec Maya by Christian Lehmann, 2003) and so this section may have a few overlapping subsections.
Simple Possession
Simple possession is for saying "my brother". They use the dependent pronouns, above. For example, "my brother" would be in suku'un.
in suku'un:my brother
{
dependent pronoun
noun
in
suku'un
1SG.POSS
brother
With Classifiers
Like many languages, nouns can be classified into groups. However, with Yucatec Maya, this is only applied to possession – that is, only when someone possesses the noun, does one need to classify it, if the classification of the noun is not obvious or could otherwise have a different interpretation. For example, in the abstract in peek' could mean either "my dog" or "my hot dog". To clarify which is meant, a speaker would use a possessive classifier. Thus, "my hot dog" would be in wo'och peek' and "my (domesticated) dog" would be in walak' peek', where o'och:food.CL and alak':domesticated animal.CL are the base forms and add the harmony -w mentioned under Dependent Pronouns.
in walak' peek':my dog
{
dependent pronoun
harmony marker
classifier
noun
in
w
alak'
peek'
1SG.POSS
∅
domesticated.CL
dog
Lehmann, §3.2.2.2.3.1.3.2, mentions that the set of classifiers is open and (at least as of 2003 and what I've been able to find online), there is no exhaustive treatment of them. Modified from Lehmann T19, a list of classifiers is found below.
meaning
CL
food
o'och
domesticated animal
alak'
something grown
pak'al
something made
mejen
something received
matan
something presented
sij
something bought
man
something sold
kon
something cut
ch'ak
something drawn/hauled
pay
something fetched
ch'a'
something pulled
kóol
Something of Something
In other languages, this might be called genitive possession, e.g. the door of the school or the book of the teacher. However, as there is no GEN in Yucatec Maya, it is something different. Andrade touches on this in §4.60.3.
The basic structure is as follows u {possessed}il {possessor}. For example, u najil xook ⧸ the school or more literally "the building of studying". When more than one "possessed" is needed, they are all modified with the u -il form. For example, "the market of the school" would be u najil u koonolil u najil xook, where u najil koonol:market is the base form. You can see that koonol:selling gets modified by u -il.
In the case of plurals, the plural suffix, -o'ob comes after -il: u meyajilo'ob janal:the chores for food. In the case of personal possession, the personal POSS pronoun comes before the last noun: u najil in xook:my school.
Inalienable Possession
Possession of something that is "inalienable", i.e. something that is intrinsically part of the possessor, such as an organ, uses -el, rather than -il.
Examples of inalienable objects:
bak': flesh
baak: bone
ts'o'ots: hair
k'i'ik': blood
ts'o'om: marrow
u ts'o'omel u pool his brain
Yaj in xiich'el. My muscles hurt.
Adjectives
Adjectives come before the noun, ex. le chak abala' jats'uts ⧸ this red plum is beautiful, where chak:red comes before abal:plum.
Plurality
The standard way of pluralizing adjectives is with the suffix -o'ob, just like nouns. Thus, In suku'uno'ob jach ki'ichkelemo'ob. ⧸ My older brothers are handsome.
However, some adjectives are used only with plural nouns and some only with singular nouns.
big: nojoch (SG), nukuch (PL)
small: (chi)chan (SG), mejen (PL)
When an adjective is used with -il (see below), it uses the plural form of the adjective.
Adjectives with -il
Adjectives can be suffixed with -il to indicate a "selective quality", which could be loosely translated as "of all" the nouns in the current speaking context, this is the "adjective" one. For example, u chakil abal jats'uts ⧸ (of all the plums) the red plum is beautiful. It is not clear at present if this also indicates superlative nature (e.g it is reddest), or if it is just emphatic.
Prepositions
ti'
sort of a generic preposition, corresponding to at, to, for, by, in, (de, en, a in Spanish)
Sentence Structures
Questions
ba'axten: why
bix: how
jay: how many, how much – requires a numeric classifer
kux: and (as a rejoinder), e.g. kux teech?:and you?
máax: who
tu'ux: where
Jayp'éel ja'ab yaan teech? How old are you?
Negation
ma': no
mixba'al: nothing
mixtu'ux: nowhere
mina'an: there is nothing / I have nothing, etc.
Clausal Suffixes
e'
Clausal terminator. It is affixed to the last word in a clause to indicate that it is complete. In na'e' ki'ichpam ⧸ My mom is pretty.
i'
Sentence terminator. Andrade (§3.7) notes that sentences almost invariably end with -i' when the final "construction" of the stentence requires a suffixal pronoun.
Common Structures
Ability to do something
Ability is indicated with oojel plus the verb. Thus, In woojel paax ⧸ I can play an instrumentJorge et al., s6e12, where paax:to play an instrument is the verb one is able to do. Note that because the dependent pronoun is used, oojel is prefixed with w/y.
To Like Something
Liking something requires indicating how one likes it. That is, what sense is used to enjoy the thing.
There are 4 senses used, plus a generic catch-all for everything else:
xikin (ear): aurally
chi' (mouth): taste (specifically of food)
ni' (nose): olfactorly
ich (eye): visibly
t'aan: everything else
The general structure is:
uts tin chi' tamales:I like tamales
{
uts
to + dependent pronoun
classifier
what you like
uts
tin
chi'
tamales
good
to-{1SG}
food.CL
tamales
Uts tin t'aan in kanik maaya. I like to study (Yucatec) Mayan.
Uts tin ni' a ki'ibok. I like your perfume. Via smell
Numbers
Numbers
Yucatec Maya is a vigesimal (base 20) language. Mayan numerals are in parentheses, they are most often written vertically, with the 1s place at the bottom.
In addition to the teens having the standard "ones + lajun" form below, 11 and 12 each have additional forms that one may hear. Note that when appending lajun:ten, if the number ends in a vowel, that vowel is repeated with a '.
Similar to other Mayan languages, the work for 20 comes from the word for person ma'ak, indicating the origin of the system: all of one's fingers and toes.
Of the symbols themselves, 𝋡 are called ch'aaj and 𝋥 are called either jarat' or jilib. Juub (𝋠) is the name for zero and the symbol.
Numeric Classifiers
All numbers require a classifier. The three most common classifiers are:
p'éel: any non-living object, such as shoes
túul: people or animals
kúul: plants
These classifiers are suffixed to the number.
Tin wotoche' waxaktúulo'on. In our house, there are 8 (of us).
Tin wotoche' yaan óoxp'éel naj. In our house there are 3 buildings. "house" here being used to mean complex where one lives, usually consisting of a bathroom, a kitchen, and a sleeping area.
Bibliography
A Grammar of Modern Yucatec by Manuel J. Andrade, University of Chicago, 1955.
Comparative Maya (Yucatec, Lacandon, Itzaj, And Mopan Mayan) by Charles Andrew Hofling, in The Mayan Langauges, ed. Aissen, England, and Maldonado, Routledge, 2017.
Jorge et. al YouTube
Possession in Yucatec Maya by Christopher Lehmann, Arbeitspapiere des Seminars für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Erfurt, Nr. 10, 2003.