Maya or mayan which is correct

Although I am an archaeologist, and I studied the remains of felines in the 9th century royal Tomb of the Jade Jaguar of Tikal, I prefer to work as an ethnozoologist rather than engage only in zooarchaeology.

Water birds. Which is correct: Maya or Mayan? Which is what everyone uses? Maya or Mayan? Photo by Jaime Leonardo. Amazilia sp. Ardea herodias, great blue heron Bibliography on Boat-billed heron, Cochlearius cochlearius Bibliography on Garza blanca, Ardea alba Bibliography on Neotropical cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus Bibliography on Pato aguja, Anhinga anhinga Bibliography on Snowy egret, Egretta thula Waterbirds of Lake Yaxha, Peten Waterbirds of lakes, rivers, swamps, marshes.

Other Fauna. Mammals that Live, Eat, or Sleep in Trees. Reptiles, Snakes, etc. Bibliography on Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas. Bibliography on Cabrito, Mazama temama White-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, diet.

Insects of Guatemala. Bibliography, Ategumia sp. Bibliography, Automeris sp. The word Mayan is not correctly used as an adjective. It is never correct to use Mayan to name cultural objects associated with Maya people, culture, or civiliations. Thus uses of Mayan in front of words such as calendar, hieroglyphs, civilization, society, peoples, is always incorrect. The word Maya is a noun but it also an adjective, that is used to name things that belong to the Maya, to Maya culture, to Maya people, to Maya civilization.

Maya is the correct word to use as the adjective in noun phrases such as: Maya culture, Maya Civilization, Maya calendar s , Maya hieroglyphs, Maya glyphs, Maya astronomy, Maya pyramids, Maya religion, Maya ritual, Maya warfare, Maya food, Maya hairstyle, Maya clothing, Maya folklore, Maya heritage, Maya secret handshakes, Maya humor, and so on.

Maya or Mayan Language? First, it is the proper name of a language family -- the Mayan language family. The Mayan language family is completely separate linguistic family from other languages in Mexico and the Americas. The languages that comprise the Mayan language family are all related based on the linguistic analyses derived from glottochronology. Second , Mayan is the technical name given by linguists to identity the or so languages that comprise this grouping of sociohistorically and genetically related languages.

The exact number of languages is a question due to linguistic debates and the politics of how minority languages are defined by nation states and by their speakers. These number of languages is what I learned as graduate student in the s from Lyle Campbell, a linguist who is among the top three or four scholars that the most responsible for creating and understanding Mayan language glottochronology and relationships. I believe this continues to be accepted academic concensus.

Thus Mayan is the category name of the languages that form the Mayan language family. Each of these Mayan languages however has their own unique, individual name. This source language is called Proto-Mayan. This is a "reconstructed" language that linguists seek to establish based on phonological, lexical, and other criteria. Fourth, Mayan is used as an ascribed term of identitification by which outsiders reference speakers of a Mayan language. Similarly, English speakers can be identified as Germanic speakers and as Indo-Europeans because the language they speak, English, is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.

For the most part English — or Slavic, or Romanian, or French, or It is only accurately a linguistic identity of belonging to broad inclusive category of humans whose languages share some deep history. Thus, no one self-identifies in normal contexts as a "Germanic" or as an "Indo-European.

Art historians, epigraphers and most archaeologists continue to prefer the invariant form Maya, both as noun and adjective. A growing group of academics and students, especially linguists, have begun to reach a consensus that goes something like this: Maya is a noun, referring to individual people, and can be both appositive and plural; Mayan is an adjective. Thus: The best student in my class is a Maya. Three Mayas ran for office. Mayan textiles are an important source of information about Mayan culture because of the way Maya weavers include Mayan cosmology and symbolism in their work.

Hint hint where our name comes from. Correctly put: Maya women and Maya fabric. However, based strictly on our personal opinion, Mayan simply sounds better. Our incorrect preference: Mayan women and Mayan fabric. However, regardless of our preference, grammatically speaking we have to make some changes.