[Aztlan] Maya and Mayan

[Barb MacLeod]

Michael Finley said:

> In defense of the  use of Mayan  as the adjective  derived from Maya: This 
> is the usual  way in which adjectives are formed from nouns in English.

It is certainly one of the ways, and it is most common in reference to 
countries and peoples: Rome, Romans, Roman arena; Canada, Canadians, 
Canadian Rockies...and so forth.

Although I'm quite content to follow the convention that makes
> Maya an adjective as well well as a noun, I'm not sure that Mesoamerican 
> scholars can really expect to be the final arbitrators on what is in the 
> end just a matter of English usage.

What has made this more of an issue is that Robert Sharer was apparently 
quoted in improper usage (from a Mesoamericanist's point of view), and Elin 
offered that he was probably misquoted by the interviewer.

I don't suffer much hearing 'Mayan' in the various forms that grate on 
Justin's ears, though they grate on mine, too. And I don't try to correct 
anyone unless they ask about it or they are misquoting me. It's not that big 
a deal.

>We have no Académie française.

For that we may be grateful, even though we end up with American English 
dialects which reduce our multitude of vowels to three.

Barb
>

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