Sound system

Vowels
Yucatec has five vowels /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/. They can combine with the semivowels /y/ and /w/ to form diphthongs, e.g., /ey/, /oy/, /aw/. Vowel length and tone make a difference in word meaning. According to Bolles' Yucatecan Grammar, vowels can be pronounced in a variety of ways. For instance, clipped (glottal-stopped) vowels are produced by closing the glottis almost immediately after the vowel sound is pronounced. Glottal-stopped vowels can be reduplicated. Long vowels have a longer duration and are often accompanied by a rising or falling tone.

Consonants
A distinctive feature of Yucatec (also found in Quiché and other Mayan languages) is the use of ejective sounds /t'/, /k/, /q'/, /ts/,/ tsh'/. Ejectives are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. The glottis is raised during the articulation of the sound, raising air pressure in the mouth, so that when the sound is released, there is a noticeable burst of air. In writing, these sounds are represented by an apostrophe. For instance, k'ux k'ak'al "It's hot out there." There are several competing orthographies that represent these sounds in different ways.

Click here to listen to some basic phrases in Yucatec Maya.
Click here to listen to a dialog in Yucatec Maya.

Grammar

Nouns
Maya has no articles, but the demonstrative particle le in conjunction with the suffix -a, -o, -e functions as an equivalent of "this," "that," and "that one over there," e.g.,

The plural is formed by adding the suffix -oob to nouns, e.g., pek "dog," pekoob "dogs."

A wide variety of prepositions is used to express various functions, e.g., possession is marked by the preposition u preceding the object possessed, e.g, u pekoob Pedro "Pedro's dogs."

Gender can be marked by the prefix h- for masculine, and x- for feminine, e.g., h-men "male medicine maker," x-men "female medicine maker." Inanimate nouns have no gender distinction.

Pronouns
There are two sets of personal pronouns. One set is used to only indicate the subjects of verbs. The other set can be used to indicate both subject and object of the verb, e.g., hanen "I ate" (-en "I"), Ma a hadzcen "Don't hit me." Pronouns have different forms in the singular and plural. Maya makes no gender distinction in third-person pronouns.

Classifiers
There are three types of classifiers:

• -ppel for inanimate objects, e.g., Hayppel cheen yan ti a cahal? "How many wells are there in your town?"
• -tul animate objects, e.g., Haytul palaloob yan tech? "How many children do you have?"
• -ten times an action is done, e.g., Hayten binech Ho? "How many times have you gone to Merida?"

Verbs
Transitive and intransitive verbs in Maya are conjugated differently. Below are samples of the different forms of some common verbs.

Word order
Word order in Yucatec, as in all other Mayan languages, is Predicate-Subject-Object, e.g., Malob le hanalo "Not bad that food," ("That food isn't bad.")

Vocabulary
Below are some common words in Yucatec Maya.

Take a look at Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Yucatec Maya. Note the absence of any borrowings from other languages, except for the title.