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"Yucatec Maya" was created by linguists as a scientific label to avoid the ambiguity of the word "Maya" having multiple meanings. This scientific label should no longer be used to respect the indigenous rights of Maya people to self-identify as Maya (not Yucatec or Yucatec Maya) and to similarly use the proper name Maya for their language since this is the name of the language given by its speakers.
In Mexico, Yucatan refers to the State of Yucatan and the adjective Yucatec/Yucateco/Yucateca refers to persons and things of the State of Yucatan. Thus Maya who are residents of the State of Quintana Roo or Campeche are not Yucatec or Yucatec Maya: These words reference are not ethnic names of identity. The geographic reference peninsular is used to refer to persons from the Peninsula of Yucatan, not "Yucatec."
Anthropologists and Linguists Explain why Maya should be used (not "Yucatec Maya")
Catherine Rhodes, Anthropological Linguist at University New Mexico writes:
"In this dissertation, I use Maya to refer to the people, their language, and their other cultural practices. Mayan is a term developed by linguists that I strictly use to refer to the language family to which the Yucatec Maya language belongs (e.g., Yucatec Maya is a Mayan language)" (Rhodes 2016, 10 fn 1).
"While linguists tend to refer to Yucatec Maya simply as Yucatec to differentiate it from other Maya languages, Maya speakers refer to their language as Maya. Furthermore, the linguists and linguistics students with whom I worked referred to their language as maaya (‘Maya’) and not as Yucateco (‘Yucatec’), so Maya is the term I use" (Rhodes 2016, 11 fn 2).
Cultural Anthropologist Miguel Angel Astor-Aguilera at University of Arizona writes
I use the term "Maya" in reference to the indigenous peoples, their cultures, and histories that are the main focus of this study. By contrast, I use the term “Mayan” in reference to these peoples’ languages. The diverse peoples referred to as the Maya are monolithic neither in culture nor language and are composed of many different ethnicities. These various populations have been lumped historically as the Maya in terms of a defined archaeological distribution of similar material remains and shared linguistic roots […]
From here onward I will tend to use the term Maya to refer to the indigenous people of the Yucatán Peninsula and Mayan to these peoples’ language. The Yucatán Maya peoples are the only indigenous ethnic group that has consistently in modern times applied the term Maya to themselves, their culture, and their language. When I, therefore, specifically identify other Maya ethnic groups, and their peoples and languages, I will refer to them as Cholan Maya, K’iché Maya, and so forth. (Astor-Aguilera 2010 pp. 4 and 6)
The 2007 UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights provides the right of self-identification: This includes the right of defining the proper name of their language and of their group identity
Read UN Declaration online in full here.
1941: Manuel Andrade explains the origins of the use of "Yucatec" as name of Maya Language
In 1941, the University of Chicago Linguist Manuel Andrade wrote a grammar of Maya language. This grammar became the foundation of the study of Maya linguistics, that is, the linguistic study of the language called Maya in the 20th century. The book manuscript, although completed, was never formally published. However, it was made available in 1955 in microfilm format and held in the UC Special Collections. The German linguist Christian Lehmann later published this 1955 manuscript online: https://www.christianlehmann.eu/ling/sprachen/maya/andrade/
In the Preface and Introduction Andrade explains the terminology of the early 20th century and why he chose to use the scientific label of "Yucatec Maya" instead of the proper name of the language that is given to it by its spealers. Highlighted phrases have explanatory notes. He writes:
Preface
The program of investigation which the Division of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution has been carrying out in Mexico and Central America includes a study of the Maya family languages [note: linguists now call this the “Mayan language family”] … The descriptive information available on the languages of the Maya family is for the most part inadequate to the demands of a historical study. […] the work of this linguistic project began where there was the least need of collecting descriptive data; namely, in Yucatán [note: here this placename refers to the State of Yucatán but insinuates the entire Peninsula of Yucatán]. But even there, despite the abundant literature available, there was a lack of unequivocal information on the sounds of Yucatec […] In this publication an attempt is made to meet these requirements insofar as the Yucatec spoken at present is concerned. … The work of collecting data on Modern Yucatec was financed in 1930 by the University of Chicago, and in two subsequent years, 1931 and 1933, jointly by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Chicago. Manuel J. Andrade. University of Chicago. October, 1940.
(Reference: Andrade 1955, pp. 2-3)
1. The name Yucatec
The language dealt with in these pages is commonly called Maya, and equally common is the use of this name to denote the whole family of which this language is a member. Further ambiguity is involved in the use of the phrase 'a Maya dialect', since by this expression sundry writers have referred to any member of the family, or to any but the Huastec dialects, or exclusively to any of the four dialects which, according to them, constitute the Maya division of the Tzeltal-Maya subgroup. Ordinarily, the scope of the ambiguity is not so wide, but still to assert that this or that is true of Maya is equivocal whenever the context does not suffice to preclude ambiguity. Maps and various influential agencies have established quite firmly the habit of terming 'Maya' the whole linguistic family. An attempt to restore the old use of the word to designate exclusively the aboriginal language of Yucatan is likely to be futile. It has seemed advisable, therefore, to call this language Yucatec. In so doing we conform to an old precedent, as shown in Note 1, but the fact that this appellation precludes ambiguity may sufficiently justify its adoption.
(reference: Andrade 1955, pp. 3-4)
Note #1 (from Introduction)
[...] In the chronicles of Ah Naum Pech edited by Martinez Hernandez (Cronicas Mayas, Merida, 1926, p.25), the country is called yucal peten, and the people maya uinic. The language is known to have been called maya than, as at present.)
Summary Uses of "Yucatec Maya", "Yucatec" "Yucatecan", and "Yucatan"
1. The term "Yucatec" or "Yucatec Maya" to identify both the language spoken throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and the community of Maya speakers is not only ethically and politically inaccurate, it is also "bad"—that is to say faulty, inaccurate, and inadequate—linguistics and sociology. The speakers of Maya who live in the states of Quintana Roo or Campeche are not residents of the state of Yucatan and do not identify therefore as "Yucatec Maya" as their socio-ethnic identity. Further, there is very little linguistic research that has studied much less demonstrated that there is a specific dialect of Maya for which the scientific label "Yucatec Maya" could have validity. The academic jargon terms "Yucatec" and "Yucatec Maya" should not ever be used as they are politically and ethically problematic as well as scientifically invalid—that is to say, it is unscientific.
2. The word Maya in its etymological origins is actually an adjective used to qualify all manner of cultural objects. For example, Maya culture, Maya civilization, Maya food, Maya houses, Maya kings, Maya calendar, Maya astronomy, and so on. The word "Mayan" is specifically an invented word by anglophone linguists to refer to specific things noted above as a scientific terminology. It was invented precisely with the knowledge that Maya is already—in origins and contemporary use—an adjective. It is therefore not correctly used as an adjective and should not be used with all due respect for the rights of Maya self-determination.
3. The word "Yucatecan" is a word similar to "Mayan" as an inaccurate label for the Maya language and for Maya speakers. It as well was invented by anglophone linguists precisely to contrast the specific meaning they created with the common language adjective that already existed, Yucatec. Specifically, Yucatecan was coined by linguists to name the branch of the Mayan language family that they had analyzed as consisting of four specific Mayan languages (Itzá, Lacandon, Maya, and Mopan). It is at this point that they invented, as previously discussed, the scientific jargon term "Yucatec Maya" to refer to the language known by its speakers as Maya. The term Yucatecan is therefore an adjective that can only properly be used in English to refer to the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan language family.
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Click here for a short excerpt from a published article that details the widespread misuse of the word Mayan as the ethnonym or proper ethnic name of the Maya people
Examples of Misue of the word "Mayan"...
Click here for full text article, Quetzil E. Castaneda, "Spiritually Seeking the Maya" published 2021 vol. 23 Ciencias Sociales y Religion. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.20396/csr.v23i00.15166)
Direct Link to online article in pdf via new browser tab.
Download article directly HERE from OSEA Library.
Explanation of the Misuse of the word "Mayan" as an Adjective:
Maya Civilization, Maya Calendars, Maya Hieroglyphs ...
The word "Mayan" is often misused in English, especially in popular media. However even professional anthropologists are unclear on the correct name of identity and use this word, Mayan, erroneously without knowing why or how. The fact is that there are indeed significant complications to the correct usage that even well informed scholars can trip up on. It is easy to find websites or scholarly publications that use both Maya and Mayan correctly and incorrectly. It is in fact typical to find an author (academic or not) using the incorrect word in a sentence directly following the correct usage. This confusion points to the definitive need for greater clarity.
The word "Mayan" is not correctly used as an adjective for anything other than in reference to Mayan languages. It is a word that does not exist in the language Maya but was invented by anglophone linguists to use as a scientific label to refer to Mayan language family, any of the 32 Maya languages that comprise the Mayan language family, the proto-Mayan lsource or origin language from which are descended all the Mayan languages of the Mayan language family, and speakers of a Mayan language regardless of their specific ethnic or national identity. These are the only four correct uses of Mayan.
It is never correct to use "Mayan" as an adjective or name-adjective to identify "things" associated with Maya people, society, history, culture, or civiliations. Thus, the use of "Mayan" in front of words such as calendar, hieroglyphs, civilization, society, peoples, houses, cities, kings, and so on, is always incorrect. Further this incorrect use is based on and perpetuates an anglophone and scientific imperialism that should be avoided. The word Maya is a noun but it also in the first instance an adjective, that is, it 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. The simple reason for this is the fact that the etymology of the word Maya is originally an adjective. Maya is an adjective in its origins and continues to be correctly used in this way amongst Maya speakers.
This is the first complication: Mayan is (mostly) always used (instead of Maya) to refer to the languages that Maya and Mayans speak or spoke. Mayan language is the most generally correct form to refer to these languages in a linguistic sense -- meaning in the same manner that one uses words such as "Indo-European" and "Germanic."
However, Maya language has a very specific meaning as the proper name of one the thirty-two Mayan languages that comprise the Mayan language family. Each of these languages has their own name. One of the thirty-two has the proper name Maya! Thus, not all Mayan languages are Maya but one specific Mayan language is Maya (more on this complication below).
Maya or Mayan Language?
"Mayan" has four primary, correct uses. 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 28-32 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 1980s 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.
The third correct use of Mayan is to reference the proper name of the "ur-language" or origin/source language from which all those other languages are historically derived. 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 ...— speakers do not identify as Indo-European because this is not a sociocultural, ethnic, racial, or national identity. 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." In those case where such occurs, this is rather in an explicitly racial meaning of a racial identity, which has no real referent or reality in bio-genetic understandings of race.
The implication of this is that the word Mayan is not the correct way to refer to the people who are Mayan speakers if you are discussing some other sociopolitical, cultural, ethnic, racial, or historical form of identity or identification. For example, some or all of the people in the USA, Mexico, Indonesia, India, and Australia speak English, but not all of these speakers of English are English by ethnicity, race, nationality, upbringing, or self-identification. Not even all English speaking citizens of the UK are English.
In these four instances, the word Mayan is an ascribed label, that is, it is a name given by linguists to refer to languages or speakers of these languages. These uses of Mayan are not terms of self-identity for the most part of the 19th and 20th centuries. There is a major sociohistorical exception to this point that began to emerge in the aftermath of the Guatemalan Civil War (1960 to 1996) that is discussed below.
There are however even more complications to use of the words Maya and Mayan. There is one Mayan language whose proper name is "Maya"! The native speakers of a language that linguists identify as Yucatec Maya call their language Maya. Maya is the correct proper name of the language that they speak. It is not Yucatec Maya. This name is invented by linguists so that they can disambiguate what they refer to in their scholarly texts. Unfortunately, their disambiguation is the muddying of everyone else's thinking.
Maya is commonly and erroneously called "Yucatec Maya" by linguists (especially North Americans but not by Mexican or Guatemalan linguists) to distinguish it from the other 32 or so Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. These other Mayan languages each have their own distinct proper name. Just as languages that comprise the European language family are known by their proper names; for example, German, English, Dutch. Similarly, Tzotzil and Tzeltal are two Mayan languages spoken in highland Chiapas. In Guatemala, Mayan languages include Q'eqchi', K'che', Kaqchikel, Mam, Poqomchi' (or Poqomam), and Jakaltek (or Popti'). The language called Maya is spoken primarily in Mexico, in the states of Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; these three states comprise the geographic region known as the Yucatan Peninsula and, thus, provide the inaccurate labeling of Maya from this region as "Yucatec Maya."
These MAYAN languages have their own individual name. For example, Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’ (or Poqomam), Jakaltek, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Mam, Huastec are all Mayan languages. Thus to refer to these languages as Mayan is like calling the French language a "European" or a "Romance" language: It does not indicate any social, historical, cultural, class, ethnic, racial, or religious identity. Similarly to call a Maya "Mayan" is not incorrect or technically wrong. Rather it is inappropriate way to speak unless one is in fact referring to the facts about this language belonging to the Mayan language family or that the person is a speaker of a Mayan language.
Here is one scholarly website (FAMSI.org) where the word Mayan is incorrectly used to refer to the one Mayan language that is correctly identified by its proper name as Maya. This has an added glitch of using the anglicized "Yucatecan" instead of "Yucatec." Note: As of December 2025, the www.famsi.org website is under maintenance. We hope this site is relaunched as soon as possible as it is extraordinarily valuable resource for Maya and Mesoamerican studies.
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