Pyramids of Chichen Itza, Mexico
December 8th, 2005 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesShare This
[Currently only low quality pictures available]
The name is often represented as Chichén Itzá in Spanish and other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllables. In the Yucatec Maya language (still in use in the area, and written with the Roman alphabet since the 16th century) this stress follows the normal rules of the language, and so it is written without diacritics. Both forms are attested in literature on the subject, including in scholarly works. Other references prefer to employ a more rigorous orthography, using Chich'en Itza. This form preserves the phonemeic distinction between [ ch' ] and [ ch ], since the base word ch'en meaning "well (of water)" begins with a glottalized affricate ( in IPA notation, [tÊʼ]) and not a voiceless (non-glottalized) one ([tÊ]).





















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