Yucatec Maya

Mayan languages belong to a family of indigenous languages spoken in Mesoamerica. Often when people think of the Maya, they think of an ancient people with no modern representatives. Today the Maya number in the millions and four million people speak one or more of 28 Mayan languages. Yucatec Maya, also called Maya t’aan or ‘Maya Speech’ is the second most widely spoken Mayan language, spoken today in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize. Yucatec Maya is a gateway to the world of Mayan Civilization. Many aspects of modern Yucatec Mayan culture and worldview are encoded in the language, including many interesting folk tales and oral histories recorded in Yucatec Maya that remain relevant today.

See Major.

Department:
Department of Anthropology

Advisor:
Sarah Ripp, skripp@wisc.edu

Intro Class:
ANTHRO 376: First Semester Yucatec Maya