Introduction to "A Preliminary Mayan Etymological Dictionary"
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Research Year:  2002
Culture:  Maya
Chronology:  Pre-Classic to Contemporary
Location:  Southern Guatemala
Sites:  San Miguel Chimalapa, Chamula

Terrence Kaufman (TK) and John Justeson (JJ)
This database/text file is based on the following:

TK 1959-1978: Mayan etymologies, ca 1100 entries
TK 1978, "The current state of Mayan comparative phonology"
TK & William M Norman 1978, "An outline of proto-Cholan phonology, morphology, and vocabulary"
OKMA 1994-2002, Guatemala Mayan synonym database, ca 1500 items (based on TK's Mayan Vocabulary Survey)
TK 1967-1968 Mocho* lexical database (ca 5800 items)
TK 1967-1968 Tuzanteco lexical database (ca 4700 items)
TK 1971 Q'eqchi7 lexical database for Cahabo*n and Lanqui*n (ca. 2400 items)

In a future version of this file, the following available sources will be incorporated:

TK 1969, "Teco: A new Mayan language"
TK 1972, El proto-tzeltal-tzotzil
Robert M Laughlin 199x, The Flowering of Man

Besides incorporating the above, a future version of the MED database will incorporate relevant material from all the field data on Mayan languages collected by Kaufman, most notably Chamula Tzotzil [1960-1965], Mazapa Teko [1967-1969] (here data was also collected by Una Canger), Ixil (all three dialects) [1968-1970], Tancanhuitz Potosino/Western Wasteko [1969, 1980-1990], and Tantoyuca Central Wasteko [1969, 1980-1984].

From Spring 2002 through Spring 2003, funding from FAMSI and from the Salus Mundi Foundation supported the databasing of TK's data on a variety of Mayan languages, with the purpose of using it to create a preliminary version of a Mayan Etymological Dictionary.

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Submitted 09/07/2002 by:
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You can visit the Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica (PDLMA) website at:

http://www.albany.edu/pdlma.