Popol Vuh Preservation and Modern Maya

I went to the HBLL today and learned that there are 36 books on the Popol Vuh--most of them being different translations and editions of the book. I checked out one in English and one in Spanish from 1905 (the oldest edition I could find) 1954, (bonus: I speak Spanish :) ) and have been studying them to learn more about their oral tradition and preservation. Books can't be translated perfectly from one language to another without losing some of the savor of the original meaning of the text. For example, the Popol Vuh was translated from Maya, to Spanish, to English, and other languages.

What originated from an oral, fluid tradition is now locked into words on a page. Words can change from edition to edition, but they don't have the same fluidity as speaking.

In my research I've learned that the Popol Vuh originated as part of an ancient oral tradition and consists of a collection of traditions that are based in a mix of historical fact and mythical interpretation. It makes sense that the mythical interpretation came about from passing the history down through stories. Eventually, these stories were written down (in the 1500's) to be preserved.  Maya hieroglyphs could record any idea that could be spoken because it is a phonetic language rather than a pictorial form of writing (Source). 

The Mayas valued knowledge and the scribes--who kept the records--were among the most valued people in their society. 

The Popol Vuh frequently uses the mnemonic device of parallelism within the stories to connect ideas and increase fluidity. This Quiché tradition has its roots in using parallelism in speech oral tradition  Parallelism was often used so that the storyteller could easily connect from one part to another and have key words and phrases to help them remember and tell the stories orally. (Source)

In my research, I learned that most Maya haven't had access to the Popol Vuh for centuries in their native Maya tongue and literacy in the native Maya has decreased drastically.

This is a map of the different groups of Mayas:

An interesting fact I learned while in Mexico regarding words is it is proper to say the “Maya” people, but is considered derogatory to the Maya people to say the “Mayan” people.

Switching to a modern-day focus, I spent 7 weeks in the Yucatan in Mérida this summer and learned about the Yucatan Maya and their declining language. First, I was surprised to learn that the Maya language is still alive and spoken by the native people today. There are even signs in many areas in both Maya and Spanish. The Book of Mormon has been translated into Maya. However, the language is diseased as only a small percentage of those who can speak Maya can actually read or write Maya.

The Maya language most frequently passed down orally. Of most native Maya speakers, most people cannot read or write in Maya. Many people cannot even count to 10 in Maya. (Here is a video: "How do you count to 10 in Maya?" on counting to 10 in Maya if you are interested in hearing the language. Notice the Maya hieroglyphs in the bottom corner. )

The Maya hieroglyphs for their numerical system

There is a generation gap in speaking Maya. The elders speak Maya, but most of the children and young adults do not.. They are not learning the language, which makes sense as Spanish is more functional and integrates them into modern day society. The majority of children speak Spanish at school, work, etc. This is a huge problem in preservation when a language is not passed down from generation to the younger generations, because another language becomes more dominant. This illustrates that once it reaches a point in civilization, orally passing something down just is not enough to preserve it, especially if different group that speaks another language becomes the dominant group in society.