Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T10:00:52.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Franciscan Contribution to Maya Linguistic Research in Yucatan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Ralph L. Roys
Ralph L. Roys*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Linguistic Science, like history, ethnology and epigraphy, is deeply indebted to the Franciscan missionaries who worked among the Maya Indians of Yucatan. About 1566 Fray Diego de Landa, later Bishop of Yucatan, not only wrote an ethnological treatise perhaps unique in the history of that science, but, as an outstanding contemporary epigrapher recently wrote: “Landa’s description of the calendar and his illustrations of day and month signs supplied a firm foundation on which to reconstruct Maya hieroglyphic writing; it is as close to a Rosetta Stone as we are ever likely to get.” Further development of our investigation of the Maya glyphs will in all probability be closely linked with our knowledge of the language.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , April 1952 , pp. 417 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1952

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avendaño y Loyola, Andrés De O.F.M.. Relación de las dos entradas que hize a conversión de los gentiles Ytzaes y Cehaches … (English translation of British Museum MS by Bowditch, C. P. and Rivera, G. published in large part by Means, q.v.).Google Scholar
Beltrán De Santa Rosa María, Pedro O.F.M.. Arte del idioma Maya reducido a succintas reglas, y Semilexicón Yucateco (Mexico, 1746; 2nd ed.; Mérida, Yucatán, 1859).Google Scholar
Brinton, Daniel G. The Maya Chronicles (Library of Aboriginal American Literature, No. 1, Philadelphia, 1882).Google Scholar
Carrillo y Ancona, Crescencio. Disertación sobre la historia de la lengua Maya ó Yucateca (4th ed.; Mérida, Yucatán, 1937).Google Scholar
Ciudad Real, Antonio O.F.M.. Relación breve y verdadera de algunas cosas de las muchas que sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce en las Provincias de la Nueva España … (2 vols.; Madrid, 1873).Google Scholar
Coronel, Juan O.F.M.. Arte en lengua Maya, recopilado y enmendado (Mexico, 1620; also published in Martínez Hernández, q.v.).Google Scholar
Eguiara y Eguren, Juan José. Bibliotheca Mexicana (Mexico, 1755).Google Scholar
Landa, Diego De O.F.M.. Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Paris, 1864; English edition by Tozzer, q.v.).Google Scholar
López De Cogolludo, Diego O.F.M.. Historia de Yucatán (Madrid, 1688; 3rd ed. in 2 vols.; Mérida, Yucatán, 1867–1868).Google Scholar
Martínez Hernández, Juan (ed.). Diccionario de Motul: Maya-Español (Mérida, Yucatán, 1929).Google Scholar
Means, Philip A. History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatán and of the Itzas (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, No. 7, Cambridge, 1917).Google Scholar
Motul Dictionary. (edited by Martínez Hernández, q.v.).Google Scholar
Pérez, Juan Pío. Coordinación alfabética de las voces del idioma Maya … (Mérida, Yucatán, 1898; also contains the Diccionario de Ticul, pp. 123–296).Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. “Antonio de Ciudad Real, Ethnographer,” American Anthropologist, vol. 34 (1931), pp. 118–126.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. The Titles of Ebtun (Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 505, Washington, 1939).Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan (Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 548, Washington, 1943).Google Scholar
Ruz, [José] Joaquín [Francisco Carrillo De] O.F.M. Grammàtica Yucateca, formada para la instrucción de los indígenas, sobre el compendio de D. Diego Narciso Herranz y Quirós (Mérida, Yucatán, 1844).Google Scholar
San Buenaventura, Gabriel De O.F.M.. Arte de la lengua Maya (Mexico, 1684; 2nd ed.; Mexico, 1888).Google Scholar
San Francisco, Diccionario De. Maya-Español and Español-Maya. (Original seventeenth-century MS lost, but copy made by Juan Pío Pérez, reproduced by Gates, William, is in Berendt, Carl H., Berendt Linguistic Collection, No. 3, University Museum, Philadelphia).Google Scholar
Seler, Edward. Gesammelte abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprachund Alterthumskunde (5 vols. + 3 vols, of Index, Berlin, 1902–1923; cf. vol. I, pp. 65–126, for analysis of Maya verb).Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: Introduction (Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 589, Washington, 1950).Google Scholar
Ticul, Diccionario De. Español-Maya. (Original MS of 1690 lost, but copy published by Pérez, q.v.).Google Scholar
Tozzer, Albert M. A Maya Grammar with Bibliography and Appraisement of the Works Noted (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, No. 9, Cambridge, 1921).Google Scholar
Tozzer, Albert M. Landa’s Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán: A Translation (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, No. 18, Cambridge, 1941).Google Scholar
Vienna Dictionary. Bocabulario de Mayathan por su abeceario: Español-Maya. (MS in the National Bibliothek, Vienna).Google Scholar