xivrox - Yucatec Maya (Powwow 2013)

Патрислав Андреевич
xivrox - Yucatec Maya (Powwow 2013)

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2013-10-13, 23:03

This is the topic where I will post my progress regarding the Third Annual Powwow. The challenge itself starts in November, but I've decided to create a topic for it 2 weeks earlier to keep the list of my resources here, and to not forget about taking part in it. :P

The language I'll be studying for the next 3 or so months is: Yucatec Maya (yua) Yucatec Maya! I'm excited to get it started. :D

Here are resources I will be using (for now only keeping the links safe here, I will review them later and decide which ones are more, and which are less useful).

Dictionaries:
Grammars and courses:
List of links to be continued...

That's it for now, more will come later. Since there's still 2 weeks until November, I'm not gonna start any real studying yet, though I'll be reviewing the resources I've got already (+ looking for more) and probably learn some most basic stuff.

It feels good to be the first.

Патрислав Андреевич

Re: xivrox - Yucatec Maya (Powwow 2013)

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2013-10-25, 15:39

Pronunciation & orthography

I wish to start with pronunciation and orthography I'll be using since there are some differences between resources. In my opinion the one on the Wikipedia page is the most correct, it's also used in the main course I'll be using.

Yucatec Maya alphabet consists of 24 letters, 19 of which are consonants:

b ch ch' h k k' l m n p p' s t t' ts ts' w x y '
[ɓ][tʃʰ][tʃʼ][h][kʰ][kʼ][l][m][n][p][pʼ][s][tʰ][tʼ][tsʰ][tsʼ][w~v][ʃ][j][ʔ]


And 5 vowels:
aeiou

They may be used to show long vowels, which carry tone:

High toneáaéeíióoúu
Low toneàaèeìiòoùu



First lesson

Basics first, personal pronouns. There are two types of them - independent and dependent pronouns. For now I don't know much about the difference between them. From what I've seen dependent pronouns are the ones that accompany a verb to denote its subject, while independent are... well, independent! I will learn more about them later. :P

Independent pronouns

SingularPlural
1st persontèento'on
2nd persontèechte'ex
3rd personleti' / ti'letio'ob / tio'ob


Dependent pronouns

SingularPlural
1st personink
2nd personaa
3rd personuu



First conjugations (yay)

Model of the conjugation for Immediate Present in the Yucatec Maya language looks something like that:
tene'táaninmíis
teche'táanamíis
leti'e'táanumíis
to'one'táankmíis
te'exe'táanamíise'ex
letio'obetáanumíiso'ob

  • The first column shows the independent personal pronouns, which are optional and are used mostly for emphasis I believe. They are different from the ones shown in the table above. I'm not sure, but I guess the first table shows Patient forms, while the ones used now are Agent forms.
  • The second element is the auxilliary verb (or particle?) táan, denoting the Present Actual.
  • The third element is the "short" or "dependent" personal pronoun, like in the table above.
  • The fourth element is the verb. In this example the verb used is míis 'to sweep'. As seen, the form stays the same everywhere except 2nd and 3rd plural, where it takes suffix -e'ex (for 2nd) and -o'ob (for 3rd). Afaik the -o'ob suffix is also used to make a plural noun from singular...
  • The translation for the above sentences then will be something like: "I am sweeping", "you are sweeping", etc. This construction is used in situations when English would use Present Continuous, I guess?


More complicated are verbs which start with a vowel, since they also take an additional semivowel (y/w) before the root, as follows (a'al 'to say, tell'):
táan inwa'alik
táan awa'alik
táan uya'alik
táan ka'alik
táan awa'alike'ex
táan uya'aliko'ob

I've read in the grammar that the -ik suffix is a "verb ending appended to the verb root to form the transitive verb". But it's for some other lesson...

The auxilliary táan may also contract with the following personal pronoun. Examples:
tinmíis
tamíis
tumíis
tmíis
tamíise'ex
tumíiso'ob


The Habitual Present Tense is formed by taking the contracted táan form and changing the 't' to 'k':
kinmíis
kamíis
kumíis
kmíis
kamíise'ex
kumíiso'ob

These forms are surely a contraction of some auxilliary verb starting with 'k-', but I don't know which one yet.



That's it for now. In the next post I will write some more examples and exercises of conjugation, and start the next lesson as well. I started learning a bit early, but I was bored and later I won't have as much time, so why not use it? :)

Патрислав Андреевич

Re: xivrox - Yucatec Maya (Powwow 2013)

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2013-11-09, 19:29

Thank to Lowena I now have some more resources that I’ll be using during my study! Yay! It’s mostly in Spanish but I haven’t really expected anything else. :P

But first, I will do some exercises from the Curso de Maya Yucateco. These are the ones at the end of the first lesson. They are in Spanish but I will answer in English.

1. Escribe en maya el nombre de los siguientes animales:
  1. conejo (rabbit) - t’u’ul
  2. caballo (horse) - tsíimin
  3. perro (dog) - pèek’
  4. gato (cat) - mìis
  5. iguano (iguana) - hùuh
  6. venado (deer) - kéeh
  7. pájaro (bird) - ch’íich’
  8. zopilote - ch’òom
  9. tortuga (turtle) - áak
  10. gallina (hen) - kàax

2. Traduce al español inglés las siguientes oraciones:
  1. Ki't'àantabah Felipe - Hello Felipe!
  2. ¿Tu'ux a tàal? - Where do you come from? :?:
  3. Tàalen ts'òon - I come from hunting. :?:
  4. ¿Ba'ax ta ts'onah? - What were you hunting?
  5. Tin ts'onah t'u'ul - I was hunting a rabbit.

Notes:
  • ba’ax - inter. what
  • ki’t’àantabah - form of greeting
  • tàal - intr. v. come
  • tu’ux - inter. where
  • ts’òon - n. firearm, gun, shotgun
  • ts’onah - tr. v. (past) hunt, shoot; (the present—I believe—is ts’onik)

3. Conjuga los verbos en el presente habitual y actual.
  • xòok - tr. v. read
    tene’ kin xòok / tene’ táan in xòok
    teche’ ka xòok / teche’ táan a xòok
    leti’e’ ku xòok / leti’e’ táan u xòok
    to’one’ k xòok / to’one’ táan k xòok
    te’exe’ ka xòoke’ex / te’exe’ táan a xòoke’ex
    letio’obe ku xòoko’ob / letio’obe u xòoko’ob
  • xíimbal - intr. v. go, walk
    tene’ kin xíimbal / tene’ táan in xíimbal
    teche’ ka xíimbal / teche’ táan a xíimbal
    leti’e’ ku xíimbal / leti’e’ táan u xíimbal
    to’one’ k xíimbal / to’one’ táan k xíimbal
    te’exe’ ka xíimbale’ex / te’exe’ táan a xíimbale’ex
    letio’obe ku xíimbalo’ob / letio’obe u xíimbalo’ob
  • míis - intr. v. sweep (tr. is míistik)
    tene’ kin míis / tene’ táan in míis
    teche’ ka míis / teche’ táan a míis
    leti’e’ ku míis / leti’e’ táan u míis
    to’one’ k míis / to’one’ táan k míis
    te’exe’ ka míise’ex / te’exe’ táan a míise’ex
    letio’obe ku míiso’ob / letio’obe u míiso’ob

4. Hacer que los alumnos dialoguen entre ellos. Se puede usar la técnica del conocimiento.
I’m not sure how to do this exercise exactly so I will just translate the questions. :lol:
  • ¿Bix a k'àaba'? = What’s your name?
  • ¿Bix u k'àaba' a na'? = What’s your mother’s name?
  • ¿Bix u k'aaba' a kìik? = What’s your younger sister’s name?
  • ¿Bix u k'àaba' a suku'un? = What’s your older brother’s name?
  • ¿Bix u k'aaba' a tàatah? = What’s your father’s name?
  • ¿Bix u k'àaba' a wíits'in? = What’s your younger sibling’s name?

Notes:
  • bix - inter. how, what
  • íits’in - n. younger sister, younger brother
  • kìik - n. younger sister
  • k’àaba’ - n. name
  • na’ - n. mother
  • suku’un - n. older brother
  • tàtaah - n. father

5. Conversen de dos en dos usando las siguientes preguntas y respuestas.
Since I’m solo I will just translate and try to answer the questions.
Questions:
  1. ¿Ba'ax ka bèetik? = What do you do?
  2. ¿Ba'ax ka wa'alik? = What do you say?
  3. ¿Ba'ax yàan ta wotoch? = What is there in your home?
  4. ¿Ba'ax ka hàantik ta wotoch? = What do you eat at (your) home?
Answers:
  1. Tin wa’alik (= I speak). Tin xòok hu’uno’ob (= I read books).
  2. Tin wa’alik t’aano’ob (= I say words).
  3. Yàan tin wotoche’ hu’uno’ob, xk’áanho’ol, nu’ukulo’ob, chukwa’, hanal. (= In my home there are: books, a pillow, tools, chocolate, food.
  4. Kin hàantik chukwa’, bak’, kàax... (= I eat chocolate, meat, chicken...)

Notes
  • bèetik - tr. v. do, make
  • a’alik - intr. v. say, tell; tr. - a’al
  • otoch - n. home
  • yàan - intr. v. have; adv. there is/are
  • hàantik - intr. v. eat
  • hu’un - n. book
  • xk’áanho’ol - n. pillow
  • nu’ukul - n. tool
  • chukwa’ - n. chocolate
  • hanal - n. food


Uff.. later I will analyse it and try to learn some more grammar and why it’s like this and not like that. Yeah, this kind of stuff. Enough for today though. :P

Tak sáamal! (= Good-bye!)

vijayjohn
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Re: xivrox - Yucatec Maya (Powwow 2013)

Postby vijayjohn » 2013-12-25, 6:32

You know, I think K'iche' would ideally be the first Mayan language I'd actually manage to learn, but I'm pretty sure I can help you with Yucatec Maya if you'd like. :D


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