Yucatec Maya is spoken daily by nearly 700,000 people in southern Mexico. Itâs a living language, descendent of the civilization of antiquity, which has lasted for centuries and now sees a growing artistic production. It is also used in daily speech among the Spanish-speaking Mexicans who live in the states of YucatĂĄn, Campeche and Quintana Roo.
Among the younger bilingual speakers (Mayan/Spanish), there is a growing interest in using digital tools in their mother tongue. Therefore Nacnati (an NGO formed by digital enthusiasts under the age of 30), the Mozilla Mexico chapter, Wikimedia MĂ©xico and the National Commission for Development of Indigenous Peoples of the government of Mexico held a Mayan TranslatĂłn (translate-a-thon) in Merida, Yucatan, commemorating the International Day of Indigenous Peoples on August 9th. Among the group of 31 translators were anthropologists, lawyers, researchers, graduate students in Maya and even high school students from nearby boroughs, such as Peto, Tekax, Valladolid, HalachĂł and Muna.
During the TranslatĂłn, which occurred from 8 am to 6 pm, participants localized Mozilla Firefox, increased the articles on Yucatec Mayan Wikipedia — which is still at Wikimedia Incubator — and uploaded the first documents of the Google Endangered Languages project.
With this event we began a very important activity for new and current generations of our Mayan communities. Articles have been added to Wikipedia; the Firefox browser in Maya will now be published sooner; and Maya linguists are uploading documents to the Google Endangered Languages projectââ. But the highlight of the Mayan TranslatĂłn is that 31 mayan language advocates are committed to follow this initiative and repeat this activity for the next event.
Ko’one’ex! (or “Hooray!” in Maya)
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