To understand the yucatecan speaking… Eight fun examples
The influence of the Mayan language in the speech of the yucatecans is huge and makes the Spanish spoken in Yucatan different from the rest of the Mexican population … has characteristics that make it different; Intonation comes from the Mayan language. The “speaking Yucatecan” is different, the “X” appears everywhere and sounds like “sh”; Another feature is that the “m” overrides any final “n”, for example Yucatam for Yucatan also pam for pan (bread), uniom for Union.
The s (the) end tends to be suppressed; diphthong “ai” sounds like “cock” and policilla instead of ‘police’ and Tilla, by ‘Aunt’ … But this is not over, the “LL” becomes “IA”, for example: AMARIO by ‘ yellow’; Membrío instead of ‘quince’ … This causes surprise and delight, for those who visit us and sometimes lends itself to fun confusion. Here are some fun examples:
Lo busco y no lo busco… (Look for it and don’t look for it)
A phrase that makes us famous in the rest of the country is that of “I look, I look and do not look” … sounds a bit strange but for us it is normal as for the ancient Maya one word served to define both so that only it seeks what is sought. “What have you sought?” ask a Yucatecan to know if you found something … so can you imagine the confusion?
The word “anolar” comes from the Mayan word “nool” meaning undo something in your mouth and we use it without knowing he has a Mayan origin.
Many Mayan terms have gone through a process spanish assimilation, a super-yucatecan example is “achocar” coming from “chooc” (put in by force) …
Another influence of the Mayan language in the way we speak and understand the world is in those phrases that only make sense for our visitors when we explained that in the ancient language a word or phrase can mean many things and are very significant for yucatecans as “pass he did”, “took and died” for example.
For Yucatecan the first letter of the alphabet is much more than that … A is for us an adverb! … A te pago pay, meaning after you paid it, or A lo leo, meaning you will read something, A se lo digo a mamá “I will tell mom” “A” in Yucatan is a promise and a threat!
A mixed lenguage…
The usual talk of the Yucatecan, regardless of where they live or their social or cultural status, strictly includes many words of Mayan origin that baffle the visitor but are normal for us:
Yucatecans have no belly button we have a “tuch”… Wednesday is known as “The tuch of the week” to be right in the middle of the work week …
In Yucatan nobody says Turix but dragonfly … We also nicknamed also those who are called Arthur as Turix.
Almost nobody uses the word blonde and much less uses güero as the rest of the country… yucatecans use the mayan word “Chel” for blondies.
When something causes us tenderness (As a baby, for example), you will hear us say “Ay Chuch!” … Is an expression that comes from the bottom of our Mayan soul …