Abstract
This paper outlines the establishment of Catholic missions among the Maya in colonial Yucatan, Mexico. A central element in the broader project of reducción (re-ordering, subjugation, missionization) was conducted in the Maya language, which was also the language of governance and the Indian towns. As a result, the colonial period marks the emergence of a new variety of Maya language, born of translation, appropriated by Maya speakers, and ultimately (and ironically) used as an instrument of resistance to colonial oppression. I call this language variety Maya reducido and trace its formation in the translation practices and pedagogy of the Franciscans, who shaped the early missions and codified the new, pervasively neologistic variety in grammars, dictionaries, and catechisms. Maya reducido spread into the Indian towns and ultimately into every genre of Maya discourse, including the Books of Chilam Balam. This would have profound consequences for the historical formation of the language and the people who speak it.
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