and sentences
usually follow the formula, subject--verbal--object. Thus:--

_Hemac cu yacuntic Diose, utz uinic._
He who loves God, [is] good man.

But transposition is allowable, as--

_Taachili u tzicic u yum uinic._
Generally obeys his father, a man.

As shown in this last example, the genitive relation is indicated by the
possessive pronoun, as it sometimes was in English, "John, his book;"
but the Maya is "his book John," _u huun Juan_.

Another method which is used for indicating the genitive and ablative
relations is the termination _il_. This is called "the determinative
ending," and denotes whose is the object named, or of what. It is
occasionally varied to _al_ and _el_, to correspond to the last
preceding vowel, but this "vocalic echo" is not common in Maya. While it
denotes use, it does not convey the idea of ownership. Thus, _u c[=h]een
in yum_, my father's well, means the well that belongs to my father; but
_c[=h]enel in yum_, my father's well, means the well from which he
obtains water, but in which he has no proprietorship. Material used is
indicated by this ending, as _xanil na_, a house of straw (_xan_, straw,
_na_, house).

Compound words are frequent, but except occasional syncope, the members
of the compound undergo no change. There is little resembling the
incapsulation (_emboitement_) that one sees in most American languages.
Thus, midnight, _chumucakab_, is merely a union of _chumuc_, middle, and
_akab_, night; dawn, _ahalcab_, is _ahal_, to awaken, _cab_, the world.

While from the above brief sketch it will be seen that the Maya is free
from many of the difficulties which present themselves in most American
tongues, it is by no means devoid of others.

In its _phonetics_, it possesses six elements which to the Spaniards
were new. They are represented by the signs:

c[=h], k, pp, t[=h], tz, [c].

Of these the c[=h] resembles dch, pronounced forcibly; the [c] is as dz;
the pp is a forcible double p; and in the t[=h] the two letters are to
be pronounced separately and forcibly. There remains the _k_ which is
the most difficult of all. It is a sort of palato-guttural, the only one
in the language, and its sound can only be acquired by long practice.

The _particles_ are very numerous, and make up the life of the language.
By them are expressed the relations of space and time, and all the finer
shades of meaning. Probably no