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Mayan

“Mayan” refers to a family of languages of Mesoamerica, including both living languages and the Classical Maya written tradition. This page is a good starting point for learners and readers interested in Maya scripts, texts, and comparative resources.

Dictionaries

• Mayan Comparative Vocabulary

  • Notes: Large comparative vocabulary database. Guest access is available. See the site’s help/info pages for notation and entry format details.

• Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs

  • Notes: A very nice list, and easy to get around.

• Spanish-Mayan Dictionary

  • Notes: Knowing Spanish is going to help for a lot of Mayan resources.

• Swadesh List

  • Notes: Lots of common words in Mayan languages.

• Vocabulary Zinacantán Tzotzil

  • Notes: With over 1000 entries, this can be a good choice.

• Vocabulary Q’eqchi’

  • Notes: Nearly 2000 entries in this one.

• K’iche’-English Dictionary

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: A very nice PDF file with lots of entries.

• Mayan Mini-Dictionaries

  • Notes: Choose a dialect from the page to access short word lists.

• A short Itza-Maya vocabulary

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: In PDF format.

• Mam-Spanish dictionary

  • Notes: All on the same page, with quite a few entries.

• English-Yucatec Dictionary

  • Notes: A decent-sized wordlist.

Grammars

• Mayan Grammar Wikipedia

  • Notes: Quick overview.

• Tzeltal Grammar

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: A grammar of the spoken language; it’s a rich-text file, so you’ll need a word processor, or something like that. The Spanish version is available in PDF.

• Tzotzil Grammar

  • Notes: This can get confusing quickly, with all the dialects!

• A Grammar of the Yucatecan Mayan Language

  • Notes: Nicely organized, so it’s easy to follow.

• A Maya Grammar

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: An old book, from 1921, in PDF format.

• A Grammar of the Cakchiquel Language of Guatemala

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: Part of the proceedings of an organization, in PDF.

• Basic Yucatec Maya

  • Format: Video
  • Notes: Youtube videos.

• Mayan Language for Beginners

  • Notes: Not sure how helpful this will be if you really want to study it in-depth.

Charts & Aids

• Mayan Syllabary

  • Notes: Much more comprehensive than the one below, it seems.

• Mayan Syllabary 2

  • Notes: Courtesy of Omniglot.

Texts

• Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions

  • Notes: Choose the dialect on the left, then choose the inscription (also on the left).

• Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs

  • Format: PDF
  • Notes: A really nice PDF.

• Introduction to Maya Writing

  • Notes: Information about how the language is written.

• Mayan Script

  • Notes: A nice introduction to how it is written here as well.

Other Resources

• Intro to Mayan Languages

  • Notes: If you’re new to them, start with Wikipedia and then go here. There are a ton of dialects, but this site covers many of them!

• Mayan Civilization

  • Notes: Information about a variety of topics.

• Mayan Languages Bibliography

  • Notes: If you have access to a university library, this is a great place to start.

• Mayan Annotated Bibliography

  • Notes: Very helpful as well, with notes about what’s in each source.

• Tzeltal Bibliography

  • Notes: One of the branches of the Mayan language.

• Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies

  • Notes: Lots of different things here, with images, cultural information, and beyond.

• Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala

  • Notes: The whole site is in Spanish.

• Na’atik Institute

  • Notes: A language-learning institute in Mexico.

• Photographs of Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures

  • Notes: That pretty much says it all.

• Maya Time Font

  • Notes: Time for Maya!

• Another Mayan Font

  • Notes: This one may be a bit cleaner.

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