were written as cab bob and u mul lil, respectively, on page 16 of the Chumayel. The gaps between the “b’s”
and “l’s” imply that the consonants were doubled so that the inflectional suffixes could be represented as
CVC syllables. Other examples of such double consonants in words with VC suffixes are:
(24)
Normal spelling Variant spelling
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
haab-ob haab boob
háʔab’-óʔob’
years
y oc-e
yoc ce
y òok-eʔ
as for his toe
uinic-il uinic cil wíinik-il people
ah-om ah hom
ʔàax-om
he will be awakened
buul-ob buul lob
b’úʔul-óʔob’
beans
em-al em mal
ʔem-al
Emal [name of town]
16 ORTHOGRAPHY
hun-ab hun nab
xun-ab’
only
kin-ob kin nob
k’ìin-ob’
days
ɔutulɔut-il
ɔutul ɔut til
ȼ’úʔutulȼ’uʔut-il
niggardly
ahau-ob ahau uob
ʔahaw-óʔob’
rulers
yax-al yax xaal
yáʔaš-al
green
uay-om uay yom
way-om
injured?
Elsewhere I have interpreted these and other examples of consonantal doubling in the Chumayel as ves-
tiges of logosyllabic spelling principles that characterized the Precolumbian Maya hieroglyphic script
(V. Bricker 1985, 1989). They represent an orthographic convention, not consonantal gemination (see
Chapter 3).
2.2. VOWELS. Colonial Yucatec had six contrastive vowels: i, u, e, o, a, ə. However, the alphabet used for
writing Colonial Yucatec contains signs only for the first five vowels; there was no sign for the sixth vowel
(schwa). Nevertheless, the presence of schwa can be inferred from its variable representation as “a” and
“i” in the Calepino de Motul and other Colonial sources. By the late nineteenth century, schwa had been
lowered to /a/ or, in a few cases, raised to /i/ (see 2.3.3. in Chapter 3), leaving Modern Yucatec with only five
vowels. The other daughter languages of Colonial Yucatec — Itsaj, Mopan, and Lacandon — have retained
schwa (Bruce 1968:19; Hofling 2000:3; Hofling 2011:3).
A few common nouns whose vowels are doubled or accented in the Calepino de Motul correspond to
nouns containing a long vowel in Modern Yucatec:
(25)
Colonial
Gloss
Modern
Gloss
ác
grass
ʔàak
grass
baac
bone, horn (of deer, cow)
b’àak
bone
baach
type of pheasant
b’àač
chachalaca Ortalis vertula
baal
brother-in-law
b’àal
brother-in-law
beel
road, occupation; condition;
b’èel
road, occupation
sin, fault, mistreatment
ceeb
belch
kèeb’
belch
ix coochol
large crickets
š kòočol
cricket
yeeb
fog, dew
yèeb’
fog, dew
nooy
pith, kernel, flesh
nòoy
pith, kernel
paal
young boy or girl
pàal
infant, child, minor
toon
penis
tòon
penis
They imply that contrastive vowel length existed in Colonial Yucatec and is still present today (see 2.3.2.3.
in Chapter 3).
2.3. ABBREVIATIONS. Only one Maya word is systematically abbreviated in Colonial texts, namely yetel
‘with, and.’ It is usually represented graphemically as y, in which guise it resembles the Spanish word y,
whose meaning ‘and’ is similar (although the Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua [V. Bricker and Miram 2002:249]
contains one example of Spanish y ‘and’ spelled as ll, suggesting a misunderstanding of Spanish spelling
conventions, which reserve ll for the word-initial and intervocalic positions, as in llano ‘plain’ and martillo
‘hammer’). There are, however, alternative abbreviations for yetel, including ytel, yt., and .y. . The yt. form
resembles the abbreviation for the Latin word ytem ‘and also,’ the meaning of which is also similar. yetel
ORTHOGRAPHY 17
is occasionally spelled out in full (as yetel or lletel), and in rare instances the tail of the “y” is barred in the
unabbreviated version of the word: yetel.
The Maya scribe borrowed the Spanish convention of abbreviating words ending in nasals, either /n/ or
/m/, by deleting the final consonant and placing a tilde (~) over the antecedent vowel:
(26)
Word-Final
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
bolõ
b’olon nine
cã kan four
lahũ
laxun ten
mehê mexen
man’s child
tũ
túun then
tumê
t u mèen because
tħã
t’àan
word, language
xamã šaman north
yã yàan exists
yũ
yùum father
Intervocalic nasals were sometimes treated in the same way:
(27)
Intervocalic
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
mãik manik’
seventh day of Maya week
nũya
núumyah suffering
tãcaz tamkas seizure
tãcoch táankoč
half
tãxel táanšel foreign
Occasionally, other consonants were deleted in spellings of Maya words, using either a tilde, or a period (.),
or both to indicate that a letter was missing:
(28)
Abbreviation
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
ãy.k.l. ayik’al
rich, wealthy
culubű
k u lúub’ul
it falls
cuzű
k u sùut
it returns
yahã.cã
y ahal-kàab’ dawn
yahãlil
y ahawlil
his reign
In none of these sets of examples does the tilde represent a nasalized vowel.
Colonial texts abound with abbreviations of Spanish loans:
(29)
Abbreviation
Full spelling
Gloss
Aguar.e aguardiente rum
Alc.es alcaldes magistrates
Al.o Alonso Alonso
a.s años years
bar.me Bartholomé Bartholomew
capp.n capitán captain
18 ORTHOGRAPHY
D.s Dios God
ess.no escribano scribe
Gou.or gobernador governor
jph Joseph Joseph
ju.o Juan John
mag. magestad majesty
nob.e noviembre November
P.e padre priest
reg.r regidor aldermen
s.n San saint
s.or señor Mr.
th.nte theniente lieutenant
͠Xpoual
Christobal
Christopher
͠Xpto
cristiano
christian
For the most part, they follow the abbreviation conventions of Spanish.
NOTES
1. ii was normally written as ij in sixteenth-century Spanish (see 2.2. below).
2. Not all doubled vowels imply the presence of a medial or final glottal stop. In some cases, they indicate
only that a vowel is long (see 2.2. below).
CHAPTER 3
PHONOLOGY
This chapter considers syllable structure and phonological processes that result from the concatenation of
syllables across morpheme boundaries. It also examines stress and the history of the development of tone
in Colonial and Modern Yucatec. Topics such as juncture and intonation that normally come under the pur-
view of phonology are not recoverable from written texts and therefore will not be discussed in this work.
1. ROOT-BASED PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES
1.1. CANONICAL ROOT SHAPES. The core of the word in Colonial Yucatec is the root, which occurs in two
forms: CVC and CVCVC. Monosyllabic roots, composed of an initial consonant, a medial vowel, and a final
consonant, are far more common than disyllabic roots. Because the orthography used for Colonial Yucatec
did not include a symbol for the glottal stop, glottal-stop initial roots were written as VC (e.g., ac ‘grass,’ el
‘burn,’ ich ‘in, within,’ ol ‘heart, will, energy, spirit,’ and uk ‘drink’). Roots ending in glottal stops were writ-
ten as CVV because terminal glottal stops were signalled by doubling the medial vowel (as in haa ‘water,’
hee ‘egg,’ cii or cij ‘sweet,’ cħoo ‘rat, mouse,’ and tuu ‘stinky’). Roots ending in “h” were written as CV
because root-final laryngeal “h” was marked by Ø (as in ba ‘self,’ le ‘lasso,’ ci ‘henequen,’ to ‘after,’ or ku
‘deity’). Thus, although the two laryngeal consonants were not marked by unique symbols, it was possible
to distinguish them from each other in both initial and final position by contrasting hVC with VC (as in hol
‘hole’ versus ol ‘heart, will, energy, spirit’) and hV with hVV (as in he ‘here’ versus hee ‘egg’).
The orthography did not distinguish between initial velar and laryngeal /h/; both were represented by
the symbol “h” (hul [xul] ‘similar’ versus hul [hul] ‘arrive’). However, all words beginning with velar /h/ are
grouped together in the Calepino de Motul, followed by all words beginning with laryngeal /h/. In final
position, velar /h/ is represented by “h” and laryngeal /h/ by “Ø” (lah ‘all’ versus la ‘yes’). The same is true in
medial position (çihan ‘born’ versus ‘çian ‘enchantment’).
Some examples of the two types of roots appear in (1) and (2) below:
(1)
CVC root
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
ah
ʔax
wake up
buul
b’úʔul
beans
ci kih henequen
chac
čak
red, pink, orange
hun xun
one
huun
húʔun
letter, paper
19
20 PHONOLOGY
kin
k’ìin
day, sun
kuch
k’uč
arrive
lik
líik’
arise
maa
maʔ
no, not
tal tàal come
tħan
t’àan
word, language
uuy
ʔúʔuy
feel, hear
(2)
CVCVC root
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
ahau
ʔaxaw
lord, ruler
keken
k’éek’en
pig
otoch
ʔotoč
home
pixan
pìišan
soul
tepal tèepal abundance
ɮimin
ȼíimin
horse
uinic wíinik human
ulum
ʔúulum
turkey
1.2. CO-OCCURRENCE RESTRICTIONS. All the consonants in Colonial Yucatec can begin and end syllables
(McQuown 1967:209–229). The following general constraints operate on native CVC roots, restricting the
consonants that can co-occur in initial and final position:1
1. If the first consonant in such a syllable is a glottalized stop or affricate, its plain counterpart cannot
appear at the end of that syllable, and vice versa (*k’___k, *k___k’).
2. Furthermore, there cannot be two voiceless ejectives in the same root, unless they are identical in
every respect (e.g., *k’___t’, *t’___k’).
3. Affricates also exemplify a principle of consonant harmony, a syllable-conditioned process that pre-
vents them from co-occurring in the same syllable if they do not share the same point of articulation
(*ȼ___č, *ȼ___č’, *ȼ’___č, *ȼ’___č’, *č___ȼ, *č___ȼ’, *č’___ȼ, *č’___ȼ’).
4. The one and only voiced ejective (b’) can co-occur with initial [p] and with any other stop or approx-
imant with which it does not share the same point of articulation (*b’___p, *b’___p’, *b’___w, *p’___b’,
*w___b’).
The same restrictions apply to disyllabic roots, except that there is one attested violation of Rule 1 in Colo-
nial (and Modern) Yucatec, namely that the surname Koyoc (phonetic [k’oyok]) contains both plain and
glottalized k.
1.3. VOWEL GRADES. The vowel in monosyllabic roots could be short, long, or rearticulated. The rearticula-
tion results from the infixing of a glottal stop in the root, which is separated from the final consonant by a
copy of the root vowel. In the Calepino de Motul, compiled during the second half of the sixteenth century,
monosyllabic roots containing short vowels were represented as CVC. So, also, were many monosyllabic
roots with complex vowels (either long or rearticulated). Complex vowels were sometimes doubled (e.g.,
paal ‘child’; cuuc ‘elbow length’) and/or accented (e.g., ác ‘turtle, tortoise’; hóomol ‘sink, subside’), indicating that they were long or rearticulated and stressed. These clues to pronunciation were more frequent
in representing disyllabic stems, usually in situations of semantic or grammatical ambiguity. They are dis-
cussed at length in 2.3.2.
PHONOLOGY 21
1.4. AFFIXES. Inflectional and derivational processes are signalled by prefixing or suffixing grammatical
morphemes with the following shapes to the root: C, CV, V, VC, VCC, and CVC.
1.4.1. PREFIXES. The most common prefixes in Colonial Yucatec are the clitic pronouns:
(3)
Pronoun
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
in ~ inu
(ʔ)in ~ (ʔ)iŋw
I, my
a ~ au
(ʔ)a ~ (ʔ)aw
you, your
u ~ uy
(ʔ)u ~ (ʔ)uy
he, she, it; his, her, its
c ~ ca
k ~ ka
we, our
In the prefixes that are represented as V (a and u), VC (au and uy), and VCC (iŋu) in the Colonial orthogra-
phy, the glottal stop appears only when the prefix is in initial position. The other syllable shape
s, C (c) and
CV (ca), can occur in initial position without modification.
Two other prefixes, ah (phonetic [ʔax]) and ix (phonetic [ʔiš]), have a variety of functions. In agentive
expressions, ah often refers to men and ix to women, but ah can also have a broader agentive meaning,
including roles monopolized by women, in its range (e.g., ah çacal ‘weaver’). Both ah and ix appear in
botanical and faunal names, where gender is not an issue. They seem to function more generally as a kind
of noun classifier (but see Lois 1998). Some examples of their multiple uses appear in (4) and (5) below:
(4)
Agentive
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
ah cah
ʔax kàax
neighbor
ah canan
ʔax kanàan
guardian
ah cay
ʔax kay
fisherman
ah col
ʔax kòol
farmer
ah cħibal
ʔax č’íʔib’al
person of noble lineage
ah hul
ʔax hùul
archer
ah kin
ʔax k’ìin
priest
ah max
ʔax màaš
wild chilli pepper
ah mis
ʔax mìis
cat
ah ohel
ʔax ʔoxel
witness
ah pax
ʔax pàaš
musician
ah çacal
ʔax sakal
weaver (female)
ah tepal
ʔax tèepal
lord, sovereign
ah tok
ʔax tòok’
bloodletter
ah ɮab can
ʔax ȼáab’-kàan
rattlesnake
ah ɔac
ʔax ȼ’àak
doctor, surgeon
ah uaay
ʔax wáay
witch
(5)
Agentive
Phonetic spelling
Gloss
ix ahau
ʔiš ʔahaw
queen
ix balche
ʔiš b’áal-čeʔ
Lonchocarpus longistylis Pittier
ix al
ʔiš ʔàal
woman lately delivered
ix cħup
ʔiš č’up
woman
ix kan tun bub
ʔiš k’áan-tun-b’úub’
Melampodium divaricatum (L. Rich.) DC
ix kokob
ʔiš k’óok’ob’
a type of snake
ix mehen
ʔiš mèehen
man’s daughter; small
ix nuc
ʔiš nùuk
old woman of more than 50 years
22 PHONOLOGY
1.4.2. SUFFIXES. There are more suffixes than prefixes in Colonial Yucatec, which have a variety of shapes
and functions:
(6)
A Historical Grammar of the Maya Language of Yucatan (1557-2000) Page 6
