maya

«maya» in Mova's school dictionary: A people of Central America (southern Mexico, Guatemala… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (the Maya, Mayas); adjective (Maya, Mayan); also a girl's name (Maya)

meaning for a pupil

1) A people of Central America (southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and nearby) whose ancient civilisation built stone cities and pyramids. tree →

2) One of the Mayan languages. tree →

3) A girl's name. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons, the ancient Maya civilisation is studied: they built step pyramids and cities like Chichen Itza and Tikal, had a writing system with glyphs, used a calendar and counted in base 20 with a symbol for zero, and grew maize (corn) and cacao for chocolate. Maya people still live there today and speak Mayan languages. Phrases: «the ancient Maya», «Maya civilisation», «Maya temple».

examples

• The ancient Maya built tall stone pyramids. tree →
• The Maya counted in twenties, not tens. tree →
• The Maya were among the first people to use a sign for zero. tree →
• Chocolate drinks were important to the Maya. tree →
• We made Maya number glyphs with dots and bars. tree →
• Millions of Maya people still live in Mexico and Guatemala today. tree →
• Maya is in my class and sits next to me. tree →
• Maya writing used picture-like symbols called glyphs. tree →

note

Written with a capital: «Maya» (the input is lower case only by list format). Scholars often say «Maya» for the people and culture and «Mayan» for the languages. Myth: the Maya did not predict the end of the world; their calendar simply started a new cycle. In Maya numbers, a dot is 1, a bar is 5, and a shell is 0.

In the corpora

• Maya in Denver called a girl «four-eyes» because her friends laughed.
• Maya's friend Josh copied the way a boy talks with his stammer, and everyone laughed.
• Maya promised to feed the cat while Mum was at work and forgot.
• Twins Mia and Maya in Toronto swapped hoodies to confuse the teacher.
• Maya's friend, upset after a row, said she would run away that night and asked Maya to say nothing.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «maya» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.