Last updated 2025-04-14 21:48:24

An Introductory Note

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)

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:

• Possession
• Verbs

Suffixal Pronouns

Suffixal pronouns mark:

• Direct object of a transitive verb
• 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.

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).

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:

The nearness suffixes are as follows:

• -a': near, this
• -o': far, that
• -e': over there, not physically present

An example without any optional items:

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

Note: many of the examples below are taken from Briceño Chel's book on Yucatec Maya verbs. They predominantly use janal:to eat.

Serial verbs simply follow as a chain. There is no separate indicator for the infinitve. For example, in k'áat janal ⧸ I want to eat.

Copular Sentences

There is no copula in Yucatec Maya, but one still needs to express simple sentences such as "I am X". This is done with the suffixal pronoun attached to the thing that you/he/she is. For modifying copular sentences with different aspects, see Verbalized Adjectives below.

Aspect

For the purposes of learning the language, aspect describes how or when an action is done. Besides the verbal root, it is probably the most important part of the verb. The aspect, unless called out otherwise, comes before the pronoun. Barring some special forms that are called out explicitly, the pronoun is always the dependent pronoun – when there is a -, it means that the dependent pronoun is suffixed to the aspect (ex. kin for the indefinite present). Some markers also have -e', which is suffixed to the verb. In the case where a verb begins with a vowel, the appropriate w/y consonant is prefixed to the verb (kin wok'ol).

Habitual/Indefinite Present (k-)

Common actions with no explicit temporality. Kin janal ⧸ I eat.

Progressive Present (t(áan))

Action is occurring as the speaker is saying it. Some speakers will drop áan and append the dependent pronoun to t. Thus, tin versus táan in. Tin janal ⧸ I am eating.

Compulsive Present (yaan)

Actions you feel compelled to do, but are not necessary or obligatory for you to do (see k'a'abet). There is also a sense of future aspect, something akin to the phrase "I must get going". Yaan in janal ⧸ I must eat.

Terminative Perfective (ts'(o'ok))

Finished actions that are not yet considered "past" actions, i.e. still exist within the present context. This is referred to in Andrade, §2.12, as a perfective form. These actions occur further in the past that the immediate perfective below. Some spekers will drop o'ok and append the dependent pronoun to ts'. Thus, ts'in versus ts'o'ok in. Ts'in janal ⧸ I (already) ate. There is a strong sense of an "already", even if it's not explicitly said, implying a more proximate past action.

Immediate Perfective (táant -e')

Actions that have just completed. These actions occur closer to the present than the terminative, above. Táant in janale' ⧸ I just ate.

Assurative Future (je'(el) -e')

Implies that the action will be carried out in the future. Since the abbreviated form, je' ends in a glottal stop, there is no need to suffix the dependent pronoun to it and is not normally done so. Je' in janale' ⧸ I must eat. This form is also used to express the possibility someting could happen, Je'el a páatiken jun súutuke' ⧸ Wait for me a moment (implying, "could you wait for me a moment"). It maps closely to the Yucutan Spanish dialectal form "a de" (i.e. "a me esperas un rato" for the example above).

Immediate Future (n- -ka'aj)

Actions that will be carried out in the immediate future / right away. Note that for 1SG, the n in in may be dropped. Nika'aj janal ⧸ I will eat. For transitive verbs, the dependent pronoun is repeated after n- -ka'aj: Ninka'aj in t'anech ⧸ I'm going to talk to you.

Emphatic Immediate Future (k- -n)

Actions that will be carried out in the future. This form, compared to the immediate future above, places an emphasis on the actor carrying on the action, as well having a subjunctive mood. Note that for 1SG, the n in in is dropped. Kin janal ⧸ It is I who will eat.

Remote Past (úuch -nak-)

These are for actions that are historical or serve a narrative device. For example, "it has been a long time that I have...". The structure here is similar to the special forms listed below, but without the same restrictions.

Recent Past (sáam -nak-)

These actions have taken place more recently than the remote past above, but not nearly as recently as the perfective forms above. One could translate this as "a while ago" or "earlier", implying a time depth that is not to far in the past (likely the same day), but distinctly not "now".

Intransitive Verbs

Intransitive verbs are verbs with an actor (i.e. the person doing the verb-ing) and no object upon which they are doing an action. In English, that might be "I eat", which has no object, versus "I eat pasta", which does.

Some verbs are only intransitive and have no transitive form. A few examples:

• tuk'ub: to hiccup
• áakam: to grumble
• líitib: to stand on tiptoe

Special Forms

There are two special forms for intransitive verbs. Both forms are infixed between the verb and the suffixal pronoun.

Completetive (-naj-, -laj-, j-)

Used for totally completed actions in the past. This form differs based on the type of verb.

Positional/Stative (-laj-)

Like other languages, the set of positional/stative verbs has its own unique boundaries. kuxtal:to live and kajtal:to inhabit are two of the more common verbs using this form.Gorostieta, p23

Verbs of movement and irregular verbs (j-)

The most common of these verbs is probably bin:to go. Gorostieta gives the dependent pronoun for 3SG in this case as -ij thus jbinij ⧸ I went, rather than jbin, as would be expected for the standard "zero" 3SP pronoun.

All other verbs (-naj-)

For example, with janal:to eat, Janalnajen ⧸ I ate.

Indefinite Future (bíin -nak-)

Also known as the "prophetic future", it is used for distant, uncertain future events. Again, with janal:to eat, Bíin janalnaken ⧸ One day, I will eat.

Transitive Verbs

In contrast to intranstive verbs above, transitive verbs take an object and are easily recognizable by having a requisite transitive ending: -ik, -aj, or -ej.

• -ik: indicative mood, this is probably the most common form you will hear
• -aj: completative mood, indicating that the action is finished
• -ej: future/subjunctive mood, for wishes, desires, or other things that will happen in the future

There are four types of verbs, differentiating in what consonant (if any) comes before the suffixes above. These are:

• ∅ (no consonant is added)
• s
• t
• s or t (verb can take both)

These consonants, plus the ending are added to the verbal root (which is often found in dictionaries with a meaning the noun equivalent of the verb). For example, báax:to play + t + ik = báaxtik:to play something. Between the two, t is the generic "transitive" marker, whereas s has a "causitive" sense. When looking in dictionaries, one will not exclusively see s-type verbs translated with a causitive statement. For example taasik is the causitive form of the verbal root taal:coming. Thus, rather than have the dictionary say "to cause to come", it will use a verb like "to bring".

Some verbs are transitive only. A few examples:

• uk'ik: to drink something (note that a very similar intranstive form exists, uk'ul which means "to have breakfast")
• u'uy: to hear (may also see "u'uyik")
• il: to see something (may also see "ilik")

Indicating Objects

Object are indicated by their place in the sentence, following the verb. For example, In k'áat jump'éel hamburgesa ⧸ I want a hamburger.

In the case of a person being the object, the suffixal pronoun is appended to the verb. Thus, kin yaabiltikech ⧸ I love you.

Indirect objects are indicated with the generic preposition ti'. This preposition may combine with the possessive pronoun. Take the sentence Kin taasik ja'... (I'm bringing water...)

• ... ti' teech (to you)
• ... ti' in walak' peek' (to my dog)
• ... ta wotoch (to your house)

Reflexive (-báaj)

All reflexive verbs are transitive. These include verbs where the object is logically the same as the subject (I hit myself) and some idiomatic verbs where the sense may not be reflexive when translated in other languages.

Reflexive verb forms are created by suffixing the suffixal pronoun and -báaj to the verb. Thus, u'uyik:to feel something means to feel an external "something" – Kin wu'uyik ke'el ⧸ I feel cold. To feel a feeling (i.e. internal), you make it reflexive: Kin wu'uyikinbáaj ki'imak in wóol ⧸ I feel happy. This is the same difference as "yo siento" and "me siento" in Spanish.

As with other verbal forms using the suffixal pronoun, the k for 1PL may be dropped or pronouned as "ek": K(ek) ilik(ek)báaj ti' néen ⧸ We see ourselves in the mirror.

Verbalized Adjectives

Similar to languages such as Chinese, adjectives can become verbs, which often change their meaning from "I am (adjective)" to "I acting in an (adjective) way", replete with the aspectual variations, such as "I was (adjective). Thought of another way, because there is no copula, one must conjugate the adjective, in lieu of conjugating the copula.

Verbalized adjectives, in addition to the suffix indicated aspect, use the suffixal pronouns.

Completetive (-chaj)

Indicates that the speaker has completely become the adjective, in the past. Using the above, xáan:slow, xáanchajen ⧸ I was late, or literally "I was slow".

Auxiliaries

Auxiliaries change the meaning or intent of the verb, but do not change its aspect (at least under a traditional definition of aspects). Additionally, unlike the markers listed above, these all use the independent pronouns.

Desiderative (taak)

Indicates a future desire for something to happen, not necessarily from anyone present or from the current context itself (cf. k'áat:to want something – specifically as an order or instruction, such as at a restaurant). Taak in t'anikech ⧸ I would like to talk to you.

Obligative (k'a'abet)

Marks that something must be done. K'a'abet in janal ⧸ I must eat.

Incipient (jo'op', káaj, léek, chúun)

Used to express that the action just started happening. Káaj in janal ⧸ I just started eated. All four options are equal in terms of expressing starting to do something. Chúun is not given in most reference texts and I'm not sure why.

Habitual (suuk)

Unlike k- above, this auxiliary explicitly marks a habit, i.e. something someone usually does.

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.

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.

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.

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

Adjectives

Adjectives come before the noun, ex. le chak abala' jats'uts ⧸ this red plum is beautiful, where chak:red comes before abal:plum. To make a copular sentence (i.e "is") with an adjective, it comes after the noun: abale' chak ⧸ the plum is red.

Adjectives can be made intense by reduplication: k'an:yellow → k'ank'an:very yellow.

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 to me at present if this also indicates superlative nature (e.g it is reddest), or if it is just emphatic.

Colors

There are 6 primary colors from which all other colors are derived.

• boox: black
• k'an: yellow
• chak: red
• ya'ax: green
• ch'ooj: blue
• sak: white

Some example combinations:

• sakboox: grey (white + black)
• chakch'ooj: purple (red + blue)
• chakk'an: orange (red + yellow)

There are 2 semi-primary colors that do not create additional colors:

• chakwa', which is also the word for chocolate, and is used for brown
• chúukin, which is also the word for coal, and is used for grey

Prepositions

ti' (sometimes simply t)

sort of a generic preposition, corresponding to at, to, for, by, in, (de, en, a in Spanish)

éetel (usually seen as wéetel or yéetel)

meaning "with", there are two ways it is used. The first is with ti' and the suffixal pronoun, tin wéetel:with me. The second is with independent pronoun: yéetel teen:with me.

utia'al

for the purpose of (Spanish para). Such as, waaj utia'al in jaantej ⧸ the tortilla for eating.

yóok'lal

for (as in to do something for someone, to thank someone for something, etc.), about. Táan u yok'ol yóok'lal u yalak' peek' ⧸ He is yelling for his dog.

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
• wáaj: generic question particle, put at the end of yes/no questionsl.

Negative questions may move the question particle, wáaj, after ma'. For example, ma' wáaj taak a janali'? ⧸ you don't want to eat?

Negation

• ma': no
• ma'atech: never, no (only used with k aspect)
• mixba'al: nothing
• mixtu'ux: nowhere
• mina'an: there is nothing / I have nothing, etc.

Simple negation with ma' requires the -i' sentence/clausal suffix on the last word being negated, unless there is already a suffix on the word.

For example: Ma' ke'elen doesn't have -i' because ke'el:cold already has the suffixal pronoun -en:1SG. Ma' ke'eli' does require the -i' suffix, since there is no other suffix on ke'el. This is only applicable to very simple sentences. In the case of longer sentences, where the negation is only a single clause in the sentence, -i' would be required, regardless. You can see that in the beginning of the sentence Ma' wi'ijeni' táan in janal le ka'aj luk'en tin wotoche'.

When the negation is part of the object, ex. "I am not cooking anything", double negation is used. Plus, ma' may also be mix: Ma'/Mix táan in chakik mixba'ali'

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. This will dominate other suffixal particles – i.e. in cases where there could be multiple, -i' will be used.

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:

You may also hear, for chi' and xikin, the use of ki':rich (as in "rich food") instead of uts. You may also see the phrase written all as one word, e.g. utstuyich.

To Want Something

(TODO)

k'áat vs. taak

In k'áat in míis a wotoch. (míis: to sweep)
vs.
Taak in míistik a wotoch.

Numbers

Cardinal 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.

0: juub (𝋠)
1: jun (𝋡)
2: ka' (𝋢)
3: óox (𝋣)
4: kan (𝋤)
5: jo' (𝋥)
6: wak (𝋦)
7: uk (𝋧)
8: waxak (𝋨)
9: bolon (𝋩)
10: lajun (𝋪)

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 '.

11: junlajun / balak' (𝋫)
12: ka'alajun / lajka'aj (𝋬)
13: óoxlajun (𝋭)
14: kanlajun (𝋮)
15: jo'olajun (𝋯)
16: waklajun (𝋰)
17: uklajun (𝋱)
18: waxaklajun (𝋲)
19: bolonlajun (𝋳)

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.

20: junk'aal (𝋡𝋠)
400: baak' (𝋡𝋠𝋠)
8,000: p'íik (𝋡𝋠𝋠𝋠)

Numbers are combined with tu. Thus, 53 is óoxlajun tu ka'ak'aal (13 and 2 x 20).

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. Note that with jun:one, the n changes to m, thus jump'éel.

Bibliography

• A Grammar of Modern Yucatec by Manuel J. Andrade, University of Chicago, 1955.
• Los Verbos del Maya Yucateco Actual by Fidencio Briceño Chel, Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indigenas, 2e, 2021.
• Modelos de Conjugación en el Maya Yucateco by Patricia Gorostieta Monjaraz, mGm Editorial, 2018
• 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.

Additional Resources

• A fantastic resource with copies of a variety of resources from Dr. Christian Lehmann
  • Some of these resources are listed in the bibliography.