109-972: The (Greater) Quichean languages are a branch of the Mayan family of Guatemala. See Mayan languages#Eastern branch for details. This article related to the Indigenous languages of the Americas is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mayan languages The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica , both in the south of Mexico and northern Central America . Mayan languages are spoken by at least six million Maya people , primarily in Guatemala , Mexico , Belize , El Salvador and Honduras . In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight within its territory. The Mayan language family
218-481: A famous world map was produced. In 1506 Hernán Cortés took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and indigenous slaves for his effort. In 1510 he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar , an aide of the governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. In 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered
327-578: A hypoxic dead zone that runs east–west along the Texas–Louisiana coastline. In July 2008, researchers reported that between 1985 and 2008, the area roughly doubled in size. It was 8,776 square miles (22,730 km ) in 2017, the largest ever recorded. Poor agricultural practices in the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico have led to a tremendous increase of nitrogen and phosphorus in neighboring marine ecosystems, which has resulted in algae blooms and
436-476: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred about 250 miles (400 km) west-southwest of Anna Maria, Florida . The quake was reportedly felt from Louisiana to Florida. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Items were knocked from shelves and seiches were observed in swimming pools in parts of Florida. The earthquake was described by the USGS as an intraplate earthquake , the largest and most widely felt recorded in
545-626: A Western Chʼolan variety diffused from the Usumacinta region from the mid-7th century on, and a Yucatecan variety found in the texts from the Yucatán Peninsula. The reason why only few linguistic varieties are found in the glyphic texts is probably that these served as prestige dialects throughout the Maya region; hieroglyphic texts would have been composed in the language of the elite. Stephen Houston, John Robertson and David Stuart have suggested that
654-695: A documentary about the project, short videos and video updates during the expedition. Video footage from the ROV was an integral part of this outreach and used extensively in the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck documentary. On July 30, 1942, the Robert E. Lee , captained by William C. Heath, was torpedoed by the German submarine U-166 . She was sailing southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River when
763-578: A few villages on the outskirts of the Selva Lacandona , in Chiapas . Wastek (also spelled Huastec and Huaxtec) is spoken in the Mexican states of Veracruz and San Luis Potosí by around 110,000 people. It is the most divergent of modern Mayan languages. Chicomuceltec was a language related to Wastek and spoken in Chiapas that became extinct some time before 1982. Proto-Mayan (the common ancestor of
872-487: A lack of available oxygen. Occurrences of masculinization and estrogen suppression were observed as a result. An October 2007 study of the Atlantic croaker found a disproportioned sex ratio of 61% males to 39% females in hypoxic sites. This was compared with a 52% to 48% male-female ratio found in reference sites, showing an impairment of reproductive output for fish populations inhabiting hypoxic coastal zones. According to
981-475: A large scale from many of the bays and sounds. Other important industries along the coast include shipping, petrochemical processing and storage, military use, paper manufacture, and tourism. The gulf's warm water temperature can feed powerful Atlantic hurricanes causing extensive human death and other destruction as happened with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the Atlantic, a hurricane will draw up cool water from
1090-422: A serious threat to marine life and adjacent coastal wetlands and to the livelihoods of Gulf Coast shrimpers and fishermen. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Sally Brice O'Hare stated that the U.S. government will be "employing booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants and controlled burns" to combat the oil spill. By May 1 the oil spill cleanup efforts were underway but hampered by rough seas and the "tea like" consistency of
1199-464: A strategy of self-representation for the Maya movements and its followers. The Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) finds twenty-one distinct Mayan languages." This pride in unity has led to an insistence on the distinctions of different Mayan languages, some of which are so closely related that they could easily be referred to as dialects of a single language. But, given that the term "dialect" has been used by some with racialist overtones in
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#17328557752251308-408: Is also used to refer to ethnic or cultural traits. Most Maya identify first and foremost with a particular ethnic group, e.g. as "Yucatec" or "Kʼicheʼ"; but they also recognize a shared Maya kinship. Language has been fundamental in defining the boundaries of that kinship. Fabri writes: "The term Maya is problematic because Maya peoples do not constitute a homogeneous identity. Maya, rather, has become
1417-756: Is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean , mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States ; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas , Veracruz , Tabasco , Campeche , Yucatán , and Quintana Roo ; and on the southeast by Cuba . The Southern U.S. states of Texas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , and Florida , which border
1526-623: Is an excellent example of a passive margin . The continental shelf is quite wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatán Peninsulas. The shelf is exploited for its oil by means of offshore drilling rigs, most of which are situated in the western gulf and in the Bay of Campeche. Another important commercial activity is fishing; major catches include red snapper , amberjack , tilefish , swordfish , and various grouper , as well as shrimp and crabs. Oysters are also harvested on
1635-479: Is based on changes shared between groups of languages. For example, languages of the western group (such as Huastecan, Yucatecan and Chʼolan) all changed the Proto-Mayan phoneme * /r/ into [j] , some languages of the eastern branch retained [r] (Kʼichean), and others changed it into [tʃ] or, word-finally, [t] (Mamean). The shared innovations between Huastecan, Yucatecan and Chʼolan show that they separated from
1744-697: Is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the gulf experiences very small tidal ranges . The size of the gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km (620,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin consists of shallow continental shelf waters. The volume of water in
1853-404: Is four to five times saltier than the rest of the water. The first exploration of the site was unmanned, using Hercules and in 2015 a team of three used the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin . The site cannot sustain any kind of life other than bacteria , mussels with a symbiotic relationship , tube worms and certain kinds of shrimp . It has been called the "Jacuzzi of Despair". Because it
1962-613: Is one of the best-documented and most studied in the Americas . Modern Mayan languages descend from the Proto-Mayan language , thought to have been spoken at least 5,000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method . The proto-Mayan language diversified into at least six different branches: the Huastecan , Quichean , Yucatecan , Qanjobalan , Mamean and Chʼolan–Tzeltalan branches. Mayan languages form part of
2071-612: Is reflected as [x] in the eastern branches (Quichean–Mamean), [n] in Qʼanjobalan, Chʼolan and Yucatecan, [h] in Huastecan, and only conserved as [ŋ] in Chuj and Jakaltek. Vowel quality is typically classified as having monophthongal vowels. In traditionally diphthongized contexts, Mayan languages will realize the V-V sequence by inserting a hiatus-breaking glottal stop or glide insertion between
2180-642: Is rejected by most historical linguists as unsupported by available evidence. Writing in 1997, Lyle Campbell , an expert in Mayan languages and historical linguistics, argued that the most promising proposal is the " Macro-Mayan " hypothesis, which posits links between Mayan, the Mixe–Zoque languages and the Totonacan languages , but more research is needed to support or disprove this hypothesis. In 2015, Campbell noted that recent evidence presented by David Mora-Marin makes
2289-562: Is spoken by 12,000 as a result of recent migrations. The Uspantek language , which also springs directly from the Quichean–Mamean node, is native only to the Uspantán municipio in the department of El Quiché , and has 3,000 speakers. Within the Quichean sub-branch Kʼicheʼ (Quiché) , the Mayan language with the largest number of speakers, is spoken by around 1,000,000 Kʼicheʼ Maya in
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#17328557752252398-720: Is spoken by 77,700 in Guatemala's Huehuetenango department, with small populations elsewhere. The region of Qʼanjobalan speakers in Guatemala, due to genocidal policies during the Civil War and its close proximity to the Mexican border , was the source of a number of refugees. Thus there are now small Qʼanjobʼal, Jakaltek, and Akatek populations in various locations in Mexico, the United States (such as Tuscarawas County, Ohio and Los Angeles, California ), and, through postwar resettlement, other parts of Guatemala. Jakaltek (also known as Poptiʼ )
2507-576: Is spoken by about 400,000 people in an area stretching from Guatemala City westward to the northern shore of Lake Atitlán . Tzʼutujil has about 90,000 speakers in the vicinity of Lake Atitlán. Other members of the Kʼichean branch are Sakapultek , spoken by about 15,000 people mostly in El Quiché department, and Sipakapense , which is spoken by 8,000 people in Sipacapa , San Marcos . The largest language in
2616-546: Is spoken by almost 100,000 in several municipalities of Huehuetenango . Another member of this branch is Akatek , with over 50,000 speakers in San Miguel Acatán and San Rafael La Independencia . Chuj is spoken by 40,000 people in Huehuetenango, and by 9,500 people, primarily refugees, over the border in Mexico, in the municipality of La Trinitaria , Chiapas , and the villages of Tziscau and Cuauhtémoc. Tojolabʼal
2725-875: Is spoken by around 49,000 people in several small pockets in Guatemala . Yucatec Maya (known simply as "Maya" to its speakers) is the most commonly spoken Mayan language in Mexico . It is currently spoken by approximately 800,000 people, the vast majority of whom are to be found on the Yucatán Peninsula . It remains common in Yucatán and in the adjacent states of Quintana Roo and Campeche . The other three Yucatecan languages are Mopan , spoken by around 10,000 speakers primarily in Belize ; Itzaʼ , an extinct or moribund language from Guatemala's Petén Basin; and Lacandón or Lakantum, also severely endangered with about 1,000 speakers in
2834-552: Is spoken in eastern Chiapas by 36,000 people. The Quichean–Mamean languages and dialects, with two sub-branches and three subfamilies, are spoken in the Guatemalan highlands . Qʼeqchiʼ (sometimes spelled Kekchi), which constitutes its own sub-branch within Quichean–Mamean, is spoken by about 800,000 people in the southern Petén , Izabal and Alta Verapaz departments of Guatemala, and also in Belize by 9,000 speakers. In El Salvador it
2943-526: Is spoken today. The earliest proposal which identified the Chiapas-Guatemalan highlands as the likely "cradle" of Mayan languages was published by the German antiquarian and scholar Karl Sapper in 1912. Terrence Kaufman and John Justeson have reconstructed more than 3000 lexical items for the proto-Mayan language. According to the prevailing classification scheme by Lyle Campbell and Terrence Kaufman,
3052-406: Is the position of Chʼolan and Qʼanjobalan–Chujean. Some scholars think these form a separate Western branch (as in the diagram below). Other linguists do not support the positing of an especially close relationship between Chʼolan and Qʼanjobalan–Chujean; consequently they classify these as two distinct branches emanating directly from the proto-language. An alternative proposed classification groups
3161-521: Is warmer than the surrounding water (65 °F or 18 °C compared to 39 °F or 4 °C), animals are attracted to it but cannot survive once they enter it. The Gulf of Mexico is 41 percent continental slope , 32 percent continental shelf , and 24 percent abyssal plain with the greatest depth of 12,467 feet in the Sigsbee Deep . Seven main areas are given as: As early as the Maya civilization ,
3270-570: The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, located in the Mississippi Canyon about 40 miles (64 km) off the Louisiana coast, suffered a catastrophic explosion ; it sank a day and a half later. It was in the process of being sealed with concrete for temporary abandonment, to avoid environmental problems. Although initial reports indicated that relatively little oil had leaked, by April 24 it
3379-507: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement ) to help predict the potential impacts of future oil/gas explorations. Since 1979, the specimens have been deposited in the national collections of the National Museum of Natural History. The major environmental threats to the gulf are agricultural runoff and oil drilling . There are 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells beneath
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3488-565: The Guatemalan highlands, around the towns of Chichicastenango and Quetzaltenango and in the Cuchumatán mountains , as well as by urban emigrants in Guatemala City . The famous Maya mythological document, Popol Vuh , is written in an antiquated Kʼicheʼ often called Classical Kʼicheʼ (or Quiché) . The Kʼicheʼ culture was at its pinnacle at the time of the Spanish conquest. Qʼumarkaj , near
3597-696: The Lencan and Xinca people , possibly during the Classic period (250–900). During the Classic period the major branches began diversifying into separate languages. The split between Proto-Yucatecan (in the north, that is, the Yucatán Peninsula) and Proto-Chʼolan (in the south, that is, the Chiapas highlands and Petén Basin ) had already occurred by the Classic period, when most extant Maya inscriptions were written. Both variants are attested in hieroglyphic inscriptions at
3706-664: The Marathon Uplift in west Texas and the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma , and to Alabama where it linked directly to the Appalachian Mountains . It was created by the collision of continental plates that formed Pangaea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, this mountain range was breached in the late Cretaceous by the formation of the Mississippi Embayment . The rifting that created
3815-632: The Mardi Gras sank around the early 19th century about 35 mi (56 km) off the coast of Louisiana in 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of water. She is believed to have been a privateer or trader. The shipwreck, whose real identity remains a mystery, lay forgotten at the bottom of the sea until it was discovered in 2002 by an oilfield inspection crew working for the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company (OGGC). In 2007 an expedition led by Texas A&M University and funded by OGGC under an agreement with
3924-403: The Maya sites of the time, and both are commonly referred to as " Classic Maya language ". Although a single prestige language was by far the most frequently recorded on extant hieroglyphic texts, evidence for at least three different varieties of Mayan have been discovered within the hieroglyphic corpus—an Eastern Chʼolan variety found in texts written in the southern Maya area and the highlands,
4033-511: The Mesoamerican language area , an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. For example, all use relational nouns instead of prepositions to indicate spatial relationships. They also possess grammatical and typological features that set them apart from other languages of Mesoamerica, such as
4142-557: The Mesozoic and all of the Cenozoic further depressed the underlying crust to its current position about 10–20 km (6.2–12.4 mi) below sea level. Particularly during the Cenozoic, a time of relative stability for the coastal zones, thick clastic wedges built out the continental shelf along the northwestern and northern margins of the basin. To the east, the stable Florida Platform
4251-543: The National Response Center , the oil industry has thousands of minor accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year. In June 1979, the Ixtoc I oil platform in the Bay of Campeche suffered a blowout leading to a catastrophic explosion, which resulted in a massive oil spill that continued for nine months before the well was finally capped. This was the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to date. On April 20, 2010,
4360-557: The 20th century and nationalist and ethnic-pride-based ideologies spread, the Mayan-speaking peoples began to develop a shared ethnic identity as Maya, the heirs of the Maya civilization . The word "Maya" was likely derived from the postclassical Yucatán city of Mayapan ; its more restricted meaning in pre-colonial and colonial times points to an origin in a particular region of the Yucatán Peninsula. The broader meaning of "Maya" now current, while defined by linguistic relationships,
4469-468: The Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. Seafloor spreading stopped at the end of the Jurassic, about 145–150 million years ago. During the late Jurassic through early Cretaceous, the basin experienced a period of cooling and subsidence of the crust underlying it. The subsidence was the result of a combination of crustal stretching, cooling, and loading. Initially,
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4578-422: The Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the opening basin to create an enclosed marginal sea. The subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt and associated anhydrite evaporites . During the late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the basin and progressed to the point that seafloor spreading and formation of oceanic crust occurred. At this point, sufficient circulation with
4687-521: The Belizean speaker population figures around 30,000. The Chʼolan languages were formerly widespread throughout the Maya area, but today the language with most speakers is Chʼol , spoken by 130,000 in Chiapas. Its closest relative, the Chontal Maya language , is spoken by 55,000 in the state of Tabasco . Another related language, now endangered, is Chʼortiʼ , which is spoken by 30,000 in Guatemala. It
4796-781: The Central Lowlands. They may have served as prestige languages, coexisting with other dialects in some areas. This assumption provides a plausible explanation for the geographical distance between the Chʼortiʼ zone and the areas where Chʼol and Chontal are spoken. The closest relatives of the Chʼolan languages are the languages of the Tzeltalan branch, Tzotzil and Tzeltal , both spoken in Chiapas by large and stable or growing populations (265,000 for Tzotzil and 215,000 for Tzeltal ). Tzeltal has tens of thousands of monolingual speakers. Qʼanjobʼal
4905-626: The Chʼolan group and moved south into the Chiapas Highlands , they came into contact with speakers of Mixe–Zoque languages . According to an alternative theory by Robertson and Houston , Huastecan stayed in the Guatemalan highlands with speakers of Chʼolan–Tzeltalan, separating from that branch at a much later date than proposed by Kaufman. In the Archaic period (before 2000 BCE), a number of loanwords from Mixe–Zoquean languages seem to have entered
5014-569: The Chʼoltiʼan languages are retentions rather than innovations, and that the diversification of Chʼolan in fact post-dates the classic period. The language of the classical lowland inscriptions then would have been proto-Chʼolan. During the Spanish colonization of Central America, all indigenous languages were eclipsed by Spanish , which became the new prestige language. The use of Mayan languages came to an end in many important domains of society, including administration, religion and literature. Yet
5123-417: The Gulf of Mexico was used as a trade route off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and present-day Veracruz . Although the Spanish voyage of Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the ships in his four voyages did not reach the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the Spanish sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola . The first alleged European exploration of
5232-436: The Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. Vespucci is purported to have followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. However, this first voyage of 1497 is widely disputed, and many historians doubt that it took place as described. In his letters, Vespucci described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned to Spain,
5341-436: The Huastecan branch as springing from the Chʼolan–Tzeltalan node, rather than as an outlying branch springing directly from the proto-Mayan node. Studies estimate that Mayan languages are spoken by more than six million people. Most of them live in Guatemala where depending on estimates 40%–60% of the population speaks a Mayan language. In Mexico the Mayan speaking population was estimated at 2.5 million people in 2010, whereas
5450-407: The Light on Cape San Antonio in Cuba, through this island to the meridian of 83°W and to the Northward along this meridian to the latitude of the South point of the Dry Tortugas (24°35'N), along this parallel Eastward to Rebecca Shoal (82°35'W) thence through the shoals and Florida Keys to the mainland at the eastern end of Florida Bay and all the narrow waters between the Dry Tortugas and
5559-406: The Mamean sub-branch is Mam , spoken by 478,000 people in the departments of San Marcos and Huehuetenango. Awakatek is the language of 20,000 inhabitants of central Aguacatán , another municipality of Huehuetenango. Ixil (possibly three different languages) is spoken by 70,000 in the " Ixil Triangle " region of the department of El Quiché . Tektitek (or Teko) is spoken by over 6,000 people in
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#17328557752255668-468: The Maya area was more resistant to outside influence than others, and perhaps for this reason, many Maya communities still retain a high proportion of monolingual speakers. The Maya area is now dominated by the Spanish language. While a number of Mayan languages are moribund or are considered endangered , others remain quite viable, with speakers across all age groups and native language use in all domains of society. As Maya archaeology advanced during
5777-418: The Mayan family to other language families or isolates , but none is generally supported by linguists. Examples include linking Mayan with the Uru–Chipaya languages , Mapuche , the Lencan languages, Purépecha , and Huave . Mayan has also been included in various Hokan , Penutian , and Siouan hypotheses. The linguist Joseph Greenberg included Mayan in his highly controversial Amerind hypothesis , which
5886-446: The Mayan languages as reconstructed using the comparative method ) has a predominant CVC syllable structure, only allowing consonant clusters across syllable boundaries. Most Proto-Mayan roots were monosyllabic except for a few disyllabic nominal roots. Due to subsequent vowel loss, many Mayan languages now show complex consonant clusters at both ends of syllables. Following the reconstruction of Lyle Campbell and Terrence Kaufman ,
5995-459: The Minerals Management Service (now BOEM ) was launched to undertake the deepest scientific archaeological excavation ever attempted at that time to study the site on the seafloor and recover artifacts for eventual public display in the Louisiana State Museum . As part of the project educational outreach Nautilus Productions in partnership with BOEM, Texas A&M University, the Florida Public Archaeology Network and Veolia Environmental produced
6104-406: The Proto-Mayan language had the following sounds. It has been suggested that proto-Mayan was a tonal language , based on the fact that four different contemporary Mayan languages have tone (Yucatec, Uspantek, San Bartolo Tzotzil and Mochoʼ), but since these languages each can be shown to have innovated tone in different ways, Campbell considers this unlikely. The classification of Mayan languages
6213-415: The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, of December 16, 1977. Mexico and United States: Treaty to resolve pending boundary differences and maintain the Rio Grande and Colorado River as the international boundary, of November 23, 1970; Treaty on maritime boundaries between the United States of America and the United Mexican States (Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean), of May 4, 1978, and treaty on
6322-496: The United States, in accordance with Mexico's domestic legislation. On March 13, 2009, the CLCS accepted Mexico's arguments for extending its continental shelf up to 350 nautical miles (650 km; 400 mi) into the Western Polygon. Since this would extend Mexico's continental shelf well into territory claimed by the United States, however, Mexico and the U.S. would need to enter a bilateral agreement based on international law that delimits their respective claims. A ship now called
6431-423: The Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas , with solidly built buildings and a complex social organization which they recognized as being comparable to those of the Old World ; they also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold . All of this encouraged two further expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva , and
6540-717: The attack. One officer, nine crewmen and 15 passengers were lost. The passengers aboard Robert E. Lee were primarily survivors of previous torpedo attacks by German U-boats. The wreck's location was discovered during the C & C Marine survey that located the U-166 . In 2001 the wreck of U-166 was found in 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water, less than two miles (3.2 km) from where it had attacked Robert E. Lee . Various biota include chemosynthetic communities near cold seeps and non chemosynthetic communities such as bacteria and other micro- benthos , meiofauna , macrofauna , and megafauna (larger organisms such as crabs , sea pens , crinoids , demersal fish , cetaceans , and
6649-474: The basin is roughly 2.4 × 10 cubic kilometers (5.8 × 10 cubic miles). The gulf is one of the most important offshore petroleum production regions in the world, making up one-sixth of the United States' total production. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the southeast limit of the Gulf of Mexico as: A line joining Cape Catoche Light ( 21°37′N 87°04′W / 21.617°N 87.067°W / 21.617; -87.067 ) with
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#17328557752256758-403: The basin was associated with zones of weakness within Pangaea, including sutures where the Laurentia , South American , and African plates collided to create it. First, there was a late Triassic–early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds . Second, as rifting progressed through early and middle Jurassic times, the continental crust
6867-543: The captain of the next expedition to Yucatán. In 1523, a treasure ship was wrecked en route at Padre Island , Texas. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and sent Ángel de Villafañe from Mexico City, marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already been visited from that community. He arrived in time to greet García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of Pedro de Alvarado ), commander of
6976-507: The case for a relationship between Mayan and Mixe-Zoquean languages "much more plausible". The Mayan family consists of thirty languages. Typically, these languages are grouped into 5–6 major subgroups (Yucatecan, Huastecan, Chʼolan–Tzeltalan, Qʼanjobʼalan, Mamean, and Kʼichean). The Mayan language family is extremely well documented, and its internal genealogical classification scheme is widely accepted and established, except for some minor unresolved differences. One point still at issue
7085-441: The case of transitive verbs ), and for plurality of person. Possessed nouns are marked for person of possessor. In Mayan languages, nouns are not marked for case, and gender is not explicitly marked. Proto-Mayan is thought to have had a basic verb–object–subject word order with possibilities of switching to VSO in certain circumstances, such as complex sentences, sentences where object and subject were of equal animacy and when
7194-439: The coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of what is now Tampa Bay . They turned south and traveled for two days looking for a great harbor the master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known of it. In 1697 French sailor Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was chosen by the Minister of Marine to lead an expedition to rediscover
7303-497: The coastline spans 1,680 miles (2,700 km), receiving water from 33 major rivers that drain 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces. The southwestern and southern shores lie along the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and the northernmost tip of Quintana Roo. The Mexican coastline spans 1,743 miles (2,805 km). On its southeast quadrant, the gulf is bordered by Cuba. It supports major American, Mexican and Cuban fishing industries. The outer margins of
7412-407: The combination of crustal stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km (3.1–4.3 mi) of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional and oceanic crust. Because subsidence occurred faster than sediment could fill it, the basin expanded and deepened. Later, loading of the crust within the basin and adjacent coastal plain by the accumulation of kilometers of sediments during the rest of
7521-482: The delimitation of the continental shelf in the western Gulf of Mexico beyond 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi), of June 9, 2000. On December 13, 2007, Mexico submitted information to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) regarding the extension of Mexico's continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. Mexico sought an extension of its continental shelf in the Western Polygon based on international law, UNCLOS, and bilateral treaties with
7630-401: The depths and making it less likely that further hurricanes will follow in its wake (warm water being one of the preconditions necessary for their formation). However, the gulf is shallower; when a hurricane passes over the water temperature may drop but it soon rebounds and becomes capable of supporting another tropical storm. From 1970 to 2020, surface temperatures warmed at approximately twice
7739-472: The explosion destroyed the #3 hold, vented through the B and C decks and damaged the engines, the radio compartment and the steering gear. After the attack she was under escort by USS PC-566 , captained by Lieutenant Commander Herbert G. Claudius, en route to New Orleans . PC-566 began dropping depth charges on a sonar contact, sinking U-166 . The badly damaged Robert E. Lee first listed to port then to starboard and finally sank within about 15 minutes of
7848-542: The extinct Caribbean monk seal ) are living in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, resident Bryde's whales within the gulf were classified as an endemic, unique subspecies and making them as one of the most endangered whales in the world. The Gulf of Mexico yields more fish, shrimp, and shellfish annually than the south and mid-Atlantic , Chesapeake , and New England areas combined. The Smithsonian Institution Gulf of Mexico holdings are expected to provide an important baseline of understanding for future scientific studies on
7957-447: The first division occurred around 2200 BCE, when Huastecan split away from Mayan proper after its speakers moved northwest along the Gulf Coast of Mexico . Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Chʼolan speakers subsequently split off from the main group and moved north into the Yucatán Peninsula . Speakers of the western branch moved south into the areas now inhabited by Mamean and Quichean people. When speakers of proto-Tzeltalan later separated from
8066-413: The form of affixes attached to the numeral; in others such as Tzeltal, they are free forms. Jakaltek has both numeral classifiers and noun classifiers, and the noun classifiers can also be used as pronouns. The meaning denoted by a noun may be altered significantly by changing the accompanying classifier. In Chontal, for example, when the classifier -tek is used with names of plants it is understood that
8175-440: The gulf on the north, are often referred to as the " Third Coast " of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts). The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics . The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval in shape and is approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km; 930 mi) wide. Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It
8284-493: The gulf's first such study estimated concentrations that rival the highest globally reported. There are frequent " red tide " algae blooms that kill fish and marine mammals and cause respiratory problems in humans and some domestic animals when the blooms reach close to shore. This has especially been plaguing the southwest and southern Florida coast, from the Florida Keys to north of Pasco County, Florida . The gulf contains
8393-553: The gulf's shoreline is fringed by numerous bays and smaller inlets. Stream that empty into the gulf include the Mississippi River and the Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers in the southern gulf. The land that forms the gulf's coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands, is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as stretches of sandy beach. The Gulf of Mexico
8502-506: The gulf. These have generally not been checked for potential environmental problems. In 1973 the United States Environmental Protection Agency prohibited the dumping of undiluted chemical waste by manufacturing interests into the gulf, and the military confessed to similar behavior in waters off Horn Island . Microplastics within semi-enclosed seas like the gulf have been reported in high concentrations, and
8611-480: The impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill . In Congressional testimony, Dr. Jonathan Coddington, associate director of Research and Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History , provides a detailed overview of the Gulf collections and their sources which Museum staff have made available on an online map. The samples were collected for years by the former Minerals Management Service (renamed
8720-488: The mainland being considered to be within the Gulf. The consensus among geologists is that before the late Triassic , the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. Before the Late Triassic, the area consisted of dry land, which included continental crust that now underlies Yucatán , within the middle of the supercontinent Pangaea . This land lay south of a continuous mountain range that extended from north-central Mexico, through
8829-561: The mainland, Biloxi , with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville . On May 1 he completed Fort Maurepas on the northeast side of the Bay of Biloxi. On May 4 d'Iberville sailed for France leaving his teenage brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne , as second in command to the French commandant. The Gulf of Mexico's eastern, northern, and northwestern shores lie along the US states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The US portion of
8938-596: The mouth of the Mississippi River and to colonize Louisiana which the English coveted. D'Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698. On January 25, 1699, d'Iberville reached Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola founded by the Spanish; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and explored Massacre Island, later renamed Dauphin Island . He cast anchor between Cat Island and Ship Island ; and on February 13 he went to
9047-595: The municipality of Tectitán, and 1,000 refugees in Mexico. According to the Ethnologue the number of speakers of Tektitek is growing. The Poqom languages are closely related to Core Quichean, with which they constitute a Poqom-Kʼichean sub-branch on the Quichean–Mamean node. Poqomchiʼ is spoken by 90,000 people in Purulhá , Baja Verapaz , and in the following municipalities of Alta Verapaz : Santa Cruz Verapaz , San Cristóbal Verapaz , Tactic , Tamahú and Tucurú . Poqomam
9156-457: The numeral cannot appear without an accompanying classifier. Some Mayan languages, such as Kaqchikel, do not use numeral classifiers. Class is usually assigned according to whether the object is animate or inanimate or according to an object's general shape. Thus when counting "flat" objects, a different form of numeral classifier is used than when counting round things, oblong items or people. In some Mayan languages such as Chontal, classifiers take
9265-440: The objects being enumerated are whole trees. If in this expression a different classifier, -tsʼit (for counting long, slender objects) is substituted for -tek , this conveys the meaning that only sticks or branches of the tree are being counted: un- one- tek "plant" wop jahuacte tree un- tek wop one- "plant" {jahuacte tree} Gulf Coast of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( Spanish : Golfo de México )
9374-458: The oil. Cleanup operations were resumed after conditions became favorable. On May 27 the USGS had revised the estimate of the leak from 5,000 barrels per day (790 m /d) to 12,000–19,000 barrels per day (3,000 m /d) an increase from earlier estimates. On July 15 BP announced that the leak had stopped for the first time in 88 days. In July BP reached an $ 18.7bn settlement with the U.S. government,
9483-670: The other Mayan languages before the changes found in other branches had taken place. The palatalized plosives [tʲʼ] and [tʲ] are not found in most of the modern families. Instead they are reflected differently in different branches, allowing a reconstruction of these phonemes as palatalized plosives. In the eastern branch (Chujean-Qʼanjobalan and Chʼolan) they are reflected as [t] and [tʼ] . In Mamean they are reflected as [ts] and [tsʼ] and in Quichean as [tʃ] and [tʃʼ] . Yucatec stands out from other western languages in that its palatalized plosives are sometimes changed into [tʃ] and sometimes [t] . The Proto-Mayan velar nasal * [ŋ]
9592-603: The past three decades in the region. According to the September 11, 2006 issue of The Tampa Tribune , earthquake tremors were last felt in Florida in 1952, recorded in Quincy , 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Tallahassee . Cuba and Mexico: Exchange of notes constituting an agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone of Mexico in the sector adjacent to Cuban maritime areas (with map), of July 26, 1976. Cuba and United States: Maritime boundary agreement between
9701-572: The past, as scholars made a spurious distinction between Amerindian "dialects" and European "languages", the preferred usage in Mesoamerica in recent years has been to designate the linguistic varieties spoken by different ethnic group as separate languages. In Guatemala, matters such as developing standardized orthographies for the Mayan languages are governed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG; Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages), which
9810-526: The present-day city of Santa Cruz del Quiché , was its economic and ceremonial center. Achi is spoken by 85,000 people in Cubulco and Rabinal , two municipios of Baja Verapaz . In some classifications, e.g. the one by Campbell , Achi is counted as a form of Kʼicheʼ. However, owing to a historical division between the two ethnic groups, the Achi Maya do not regard themselves as Kʼicheʼ. The Kaqchikel language
9919-500: The proto-Mayan language. This has led to hypotheses that the early Maya were dominated by speakers of Mixe–Zoquean languages, possibly the Olmec . In the case of the Xincan and Lencan languages , on the other hand, Mayan languages are more often the source than the receiver of loanwords. Mayan language specialists such as Campbell believe this suggests a period of intense contact between Maya and
10028-469: The rate observed for the global ocean surface. The gulf is considered aseismic ; however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter magnitude scale ). Earthquakes may be caused by interactions between sediment loading on the sea floor and adjustment by the crust. On September 10, 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reported that
10137-653: The rich post-Conquest literature in Mayan languages written in the Latin script , provides a basis for the modern understanding of pre-Columbian history unparalleled in the Americas. Mayan languages are the descendants of a proto-language called Proto-Mayan or, in Kʼicheʼ Maya, Nabʼee Mayaʼ Tzij ("the old Maya Language"). The Proto-Mayan language is believed to have been spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of central Guatemala in an area corresponding roughly to where Qʼanjobalan
10246-468: The salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea on July 22, 1554. The team labored until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This loss, in combination with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, gave rise to a plan for establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and more quickly rescue castaways. As a result, the expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano
10355-520: The second in 1519 under the command of Hernán Cortés , which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico . Hernández did not live to see the continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Diego Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as
10464-447: The specific variety of Chʼolan found in the majority of Southern Lowland glyphic texts was a language they dub "Classic Chʼoltiʼan", the ancestor language of the modern Chʼortiʼ and Chʼoltiʼ languages . They propose that it originated in western and south-central Petén Basin, and that it was used in the inscriptions and perhaps also spoken by elites and priests. However, Mora-Marín has argued that traits shared by Classic Lowland Maya and
10573-409: The states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as 400 local authorities. As of 2015 BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $ 54bn. On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell's Brutus oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 by 13 miles (3.2 by 20.9 km) oil slick in
10682-546: The strongest ocean currents known, originates in the gulf as a continuation of the Caribbean Current –Yucatán Current– Loop Current system. Other circulation features include a permanent cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche, as well as anticyclonic gyres which are shed by the Loop Current and travel westward where they eventually dissipate. The Bay of Campeche constitutes a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally,
10791-406: The subject was definite. Today Yucatecan, Tzotzil and Tojolabʼal have a basic fixed VOS word order. Mamean, Qʼanjobʼal, Jakaltek and one dialect of Chuj have a fixed VSO one. Only Chʼortiʼ has a basic SVO word order. Other Mayan languages allow both VSO and VOS word orders. In many Mayan languages, counting requires the use of numeral classifiers , which specify the class of items being counted;
10900-645: The use of ergativity in the grammatical treatment of verbs and their subjects and objects, specific inflectional categories on verbs, and a special word class of "positionals" which is typical of all Mayan languages. During the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history , some Mayan languages were written in the logo-syllabic Maya script . Its use was particularly widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization (c. 250–900). The surviving corpus of over 5,000 known individual Maya inscriptions on buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper codices , combined with
11009-412: The vowels. Some Kʼichean-branch languages have exhibited developed diphthongs from historical long vowels, by breaking /e:/ and /o:/. The morphology of Mayan languages is simpler than that of other Mesoamerican languages, yet its morphology is still considered agglutinating and polysynthetic . Verbs are marked for aspect or tense , the person of the subject , the person of the object (in
11118-414: The wide continental shelves of Yucatán and Florida receive cooler, nutrient-enriched waters from the deep by a process known as upwelling , which stimulates plankton growth in the euphotic zone . This attracts fish, shrimp, and squid. River drainage and atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal zone. The Gulf Stream , a warm Atlantic Ocean current and one of
11227-462: Was claimed by BP that approximately 1,000 barrels (160 m ) of oil per day were issuing from the wellhead , about 1-mile (1.6 km) below the surface on the ocean floor. On April 29, the U.S. government revealed that approximately 5,000 barrels (790 m ) per day, five times the original estimate, were pouring into the gulf from the wellhead. The resulting oil slick quickly expanded to cover hundreds of square miles of ocean surface, posing
11336-616: Was founded by Maya organisations in 1986. Following the 1996 peace accords , it has been gaining a growing recognition as the regulatory authority on Mayan languages both among Mayan scholars and the Maya peoples. The Mayan language family has no demonstrated genetic relationship to other language families. Similarities with some languages of Mesoamerica are understood to be due to diffusion of linguistic traits from neighboring languages into Mayan and not to common ancestry. Mesoamerica has been proven to be an area of substantial linguistic diffusion. A wide range of proposals have tried to link
11445-538: Was involved during the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene periods in a compressive deformation episode, the Laramide Orogeny , which created the Sierra Madre Oriental of eastern Mexico. In 2014, Erik Cordes of Temple University and others discovered a brine pool 3,300 feet (1,000 m) below the gulf's surface, with a circumference of 100 feet (30 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) feet deep, which
11554-402: Was not covered by the sea until the latest Jurassic or the beginning of Cretaceous time. The Yucatán Platform was emergent until the mid-Cretaceous. After both platforms were submerged, the formation of carbonates and evaporites has characterized the geologic history of these two stable areas. Most of the basin was rimmed during the early Cretaceous by carbonate platforms, and its western flank
11663-558: Was previously also spoken in the extreme west of Honduras and El Salvador , but the Salvadorian variant is now extinct and the Honduran one is considered moribund. Chʼoltiʼ , a sister language of Chʼortiʼ, is also extinct. Chʼolan languages are believed to be the most conservative in vocabulary and phonology, and are closely related to the language of the Classic-era inscriptions found in
11772-503: Was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559. On December 11, 1526, Charles V granted Pánfilo de Narváez a license to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez expedition . The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and garrison two more fortresses anywhere along
11881-475: Was stretched and thinned. This thinning created a broad zone of transitional crust, which displays modest and uneven thinning with block faulting and a broad zone of uniformly thinned transitional crust, which is half the typical 40- kilometer (25 mi ) thickness of continental crust. It was at this time that rifting first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to
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