What Yucatec Maya Really Sounds Like

Attention: Mel Gibson. This is what real Yucatec Maya sounds like. If you listen closely you can hear a few Spanish words mixed in where there are no Mayan words. I had just given a massage to Paula, the older woman, but she did not speak enough Spanish for me to get some information from her that I needed. So I called in Sofia, my housekeper, to translate since she does have some Spanish. Sofia saw Gibson's film "Apocalipto" but had a difficult time understanding the Mayan spoken. Don't know if it was because Gibson somehow had his actors speak "old" Mayan or if it was because most of the actors had to learn Mayan and maybe had bad accents. ¿Quien sabe?

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[mexicodenis]

Hey peanut, what are you doing to help "your people"? Calling names? That's a big help. What are you doing for hunger? for substance abuse? for spousal abuse? for homelessness? for education? for health issues? for environmental issues? Address these issues first and then I will listen to your views. There are a lot of issues much more pressing than the color of your skin. Are you 100% Amerindian? Or, like most of us, a mixture of many different ancestors from different places on the globe.

[mexicodenis]

Hey Peanut, stop being a racist. The ancestors of everyone that now lives in N. or S. America came from somewhere else. One set of AmerIndians screwed the other, then the French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russians (and probably the Vikings as well) screwed the Amerindians and then the USA screwed Mexico, etc. If you examine almost any part of the world, you will see similar patterns. How far back do we go to find the original inhabitants?

Do the Cro-Magnom or the Neanderthals count? Lucy?

[Legendmaker12]

I wanna learn how to speak this, it sounds cool~ :D

[mexicodenis]

@Legendmaker12

If you want to learn Yucatec Mayan (mayatan) come to Valladolid, Yucatan, to the Casa Hamaca Guesthouse. All of our staff (except for me) speak Maya. In addition to living with Mayans at Casa Hamaca and learning directly from them, there are very inexpensive Mayan classes sponsored by the government just a few blocks away. Plus most of our food at Casa Hamaca is Mayan food with additions of Yucatec comidas on occasion.

[wtfcowbbq]

sounds like japanese

[a8lbb9900]

You've created a fallacy. All whites racist? How ethnocentric can you be? We are all aware there was an assimilation hundreds of years ago by the "white race," and my point: hundreds of years ago. Stop being ignorant, is it really a big deal which language is so-called "true"? I think you're missing the bigger picture of the movie, how power and desperation create greed, gore, and detriment. I've clearly wasted my time writing to the ignorant and uneducated. Let's all get along, we're all human.

[1david8perez7]

probably from a different region. Central America and Mexico have a shitload of Dialect and languages that branch off, same with the Aztec languages

[bttfjulesvernemarty]

Mayan

[Agett]

It depends heavily on the dialect spoken. Just like English in the States, Maya has a lot of dialects--it may have pulled from the mountains or guatemala.

Don't forget that Gibson chose mostly Huron Indians for his main roles since they looked kind and benevolent--unlike the Maya he casted for villains. They might not have been able to mimic the language properly. Does she hear any difference between actual Maya working in the film versus the others?

[Nerdicaful]

@mexicodenis Mmm...food. Here I am, just now finishing lunch...and I'm still hungry. I can't stop imagining what elements make Mayan food different from others. So hungry. What is Mayan food like, by the way?

[yourliver1]

They look like a couple of talking hieroglyphs.

[IslenoGutierrez]

@99cacahuate Most Whites are not racist. You can't generalize an entire group of people. Not all people are the same. I believe you are the racist, because your comments are in line with hate speech toward the White race. The pot calling the kettle Black.

[IslenoGutierrez]

@RosieRebel There are White Mexicans. 10% of Mexico are native born White people. It's because of your inefficiency in Spanish language and Mexican accent that he seen you as an "outsider", not because you were White. Most Whites in Mexico have money and many have powerful positions in government.