The Maya Chronicles | Page 3

of a sentence and in certain dialects Dr.
Berendt states that it is not infrequently heard as Ma´ya´ or even
Maya´.[14-1]
The meaning and derivation of the word have given rise to the usual
number of nonsensical and far-fetched etymologies. The Greek, the
Sanscrit, the ancient Coptic and the Hebrew have all been called in to
interpret it. I shall refer to but a few of these profitless suggestions.
The Abbé Brasseur (de Bourbourg) quotes as the opinion of Don
Ramon de Ordoñez, the author of a strange work on American

archæology, called History of the Heaven and the Earth, that Maya is
but an abbreviation of the phrase ma ay ha, which, the Abbé adds,
means word for word, non adest aqua, and was applied to the peninsula
on account of the scarcity of water there.[15-1]
Unfortunately that phrase has no such, nor any, meaning in Maya; were
it ma yan haa, it would have the sense he gives it; and further, as the
Abbé himself remarked in a later work, it is not applicable to Yucatan,
where, though rivers are scarce, wells and water abound. He therefore
preferred to derive it from ma and ha, which he thought he could
translate either "Mother of the Water," or "Arm of the Land!"[15-2]
The latest suggestion I have noticed is that of Eligio Ancona, who,
claiming that Mayab is the correct form, and that this means "not
numerous," thinks that it was applied to the first native settlers of the
land, on account of the paucity of their numbers![15-3]
All this seems like learned trifling. The name may belong to that
ancient dialect from which are derived many of the names of the days
and months in the native calendar, and which, as an esoteric language,
was in use among the Maya priests, as was also one among the Aztecs
of Mexico. Instances of this, in fact, are very common among the
American aborigines, and no doubt many words were thus preserved
which could not be analyzed to their radicals through the popular
tongue.
Or, if it is essential to find a meaning, why not accept the obvious
signification of the name? Ma is the negative "no," "not;" ya means
rough, fatiguing, difficult, painful, dangerous. The compound maya is
given in the Dictionary of Motul with the translations "not arduous nor
severe; something easy and not difficult to do;" cosa no grave ni recia;
cosa facil y no dificultosa de hacer. It was used adjectively as in the
phrase, maya u chapahal, his sickness is not dangerous. So they might
have spoken of the level and fertile land of Yucatan, abounding in fruit
and game, that land to which we are told they delighted to give, as a
favorite appellation, the term u luumil ceh, u luumil cutz, the land of the
deer, the land of the wild turkey; of this land, I say, they might well
have spoken as of one not fatiguing, not rough nor exhausting.

§ 2. The Maya Linguistic Family.
Whatever the primitive meaning and first application of the name Maya,
it is now used to signify specifically the aborigines of Yucatan. In a
more extended sense, in the expression "the Maya family," it is
understood to embrace all tribes, wherever found, who speak related
dialects presumably derived from the same ancient stock as the Maya
proper.
Other names for this extended family have been suggested, as
Maya-Kiche, Mam-Huastec, and the like, compounded of the names of
two or more of the tribes of the group. But this does not appear to have
much advantage over the simple expression I have given, though
"Maya-Kiche" may be conveniently employed to prevent confusion.
These affiliated tribes are, according to the investigations of Dr. Carl
Hermann Berendt, the following:--
1. The Maya proper, including the Lacandons.
2. The Chontals of Tabasco, on and near the coast west of the mouth of
the Usumacinta.
3. The Tzendals, south of the Chontals.
4. The Zotzils, south of the Tzendals.
5. The Chaneabals, south of the Zotzils.
6. The Chols, on the upper Usumacinta.
7. The Chortis, near Copan.
8. The Kekchis, and
9. The Pocomchis, in Vera Paz.
10. The Pocomams. }

11. The Mams. }
12. The Kiches. }
13. The Ixils. } In or bordering on Guatemala.
14. The Cakchiquels. }
15. The Tzutuhils. }
16. The Huastecs, on the Panuco river and its tributaries, in Mexico.
The languages of these do not differ more, in their extremes, than the
French, Spanish, Italian and other tongues of the so-called Latin races;
while a number resemble each other as closely as the Greek dialects of
classic times.
What lends particular importance to the study of this group of
languages is that it is that which was spoken by the race in several
respects