Original scientific paper

Language and Cultural Contacts Among Yukatekan Mayans

Charles A. Hofling

Abstract

The Yukatekan branch of the Maya language family, spread across the Yucatán Peninsula
of Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize, began to diversify approximately
1,000 years ago. Today it has four branches: Mopan Maya, Itzaj Maya, Lakantun Maya
and Yukatek Maya proper, which have widely varying language statuses. Lakantun and
Itzaj Maya are seriously threatened, while Mopan appears to have a stable or growing
population of approximately 10,000 speakers and Yukatek has a very large number of
speakers, perhaps 750,000. However, even many Yukateks believe that their language is
threatened and that shift to Spanish is underway. During the past millennia there has
been a series of contacts involving migration, trade, warfare, and flight among the different
branches, as well as with other Mayan languages and with the Spanish. This paper
examines a variety of different kinds of contact, and how the different language varieties
were involved and affected. One goal of the paper is to better understand how the
dynamics of inter-cultural contacts affects language practices resulting in very different
language statuses and ideologies.

Keywords

Maya; Yukatek; Mopan; Lakantun; Itzaj; Spanish

Hrčak ID:

27933

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27933

Publication date:

24.6.2004.

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