one not to the manor born could render
correctly their full force. Buenaventura, in his Grammar, enumerates
sixteen different significations of the particle _il_.[35-1]

The elliptical and obscure style adopted by most native writers, partly
from ignorance of the art of composition, partly because they imitated
the mystery in expression affected by their priests, forms a serious
obstacle even to those fairly acquainted with the current language.
Moreover, the older manuscripts contain both words and forms unfamiliar
to a cultivated Yucatecan of to-day.

I must, however, not omit to contradict formally an assertion made by
the traveler Waldeck, and often repeated, that the language has
undergone such extensive changes that what was written a century ago is
unintelligible to a native of to-day. So far is this from the truth
that, except for a few obsolete words, the narrative of the Conquest,
written more than three hundred years ago, by the chief Pech, which I
print in this volume, could be read without much difficulty by any
educated native.

Again, as in all languages largely monosyllabic, there are many
significations attached to one word, and these often widely different.
Thus _kab_ means, a hand; a handle; a branch; sap; an offence; while
_cab_ means the world; a country; strength; honey; a hive; sting of an
insect; juice of a plant; and, in composition, promptness. It will be
readily understood that cases will occur where the context leaves it
doubtful which of these meanings is to be chosen.

These _homonyms_ and _paronyms_, as they are called by grammarians,
offer a fine field for sciolists in philology, wherein to discover
analogies between the Maya and other tongues, and they have been
vigorously culled out for that purpose. All such efforts are
inconsistent with correct methods in linguistics. The folly of the
procedure may be illustrated by comparing the English and the Maya. I
suppose no one will pretend that these languages, at any rate in their
present modern forms, are related. Yet the following are but a few of
the many verbal similarities that could be pointed out:--

MAYA. ENGLISH.
bateel, battle.
c[=h]ab, to grab, to take.
hol, hole.
hun, one.
lum, loam.
pol, poll (head).
potum, a pot.
pul, to pull, carry.
tun, stone.

So with the Latin we could find such similarities as _volah_=volo,
_[c]a_=dare, e