Mayan apocalypse? Boring!
Mayan languages? Interesting!
While some people are freaking out about the latest End of the World, you can find out what Mayan languages are like, and how their writing system was deciphered.
Linguist Daniel Midgley takes you there on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlIt’s our 100th show! And possibly our last, if this Mayan thing turns out to be true. But instead of talking too much about that, I talk about Mayan languages, and how the Mayan writing system was deciphered.
I have one regret about this show. I said something about: How clever could the Mayans have been? They didn’t predict the Spanish conquistadors. And after the show, our producer Peter Barr told me to cut them some slack, because no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. What a shame that I’m not as clever as Barrsy.
Show notes
The Mayan apocalypse is not happening
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/nasa-patiently-explains-why-the-mayan-apocalypse-is-definitely-not-happening/266242/
but here’s an interesting site about their calendrical system.
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/mayan.html
Relevant ‘Bizarro’ cartoons
https://laughingsquid.com/bizarro-takes-a-look-at-the-mayans-and-the-end-of-the-world/
Some facts about Mayan languages
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yua
More facts about Mayan languages
http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanlanguages.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_languages
Some Mayan history
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/tikal.html
And finally, “Cracking the Mayan Code”: A PBS documentary about the decipherment of Mayan. Highly recommended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56t6WSbg7eY
