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95-603: Cozumel ( Spanish pronunciation: [kosuˈmel] ; Yucatec Maya : Kùutsmil ) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula , opposite Playa del Carmen . It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucatán Channel . The municipality is part of the state of Quintana Roo , Mexico. The name Cozumel

190-641: A chitin skeleton, lined with small spines. List of genera according to the World Register of Marine Species : The skeletons of these corals grow in many patterns unique to this order, such as whips, trees, fans, or coils. These range in size from 10 to 300 cm (3.94 to 118 in), though polyps can be as small as 1 mm (0.0394 in) in size. Skeletons are also lined with tiny spikes. These spikes are roughly 0.5 mm (0.0197 in) in size, and vary widely in terms of size, length, proportion, and sharpness. A layer of "bark" forms around

285-457: A black coral is hard and inert, due to its composition of protein and chitin, making it nearly inedible. Though black coral skeletons have been found in the stomachs of green sea turtles and sharks , these incidents are rare; it has thus been suggested that black corals are not a major part of any vertebrate diets. However, invertebrates such as muricids and ovulids feed on black corals and similar corals regularly. These mollusks mimic

380-460: A different reef every two months and the reefs are responding positively. Cozumel has a tropical savanna climate under the Köppen climate classification that closely borders on a tropical monsoon climate . The dry season is short, from February to April, but even in these months precipitation averages about 45 millimeters (1.8 in) of rain per month. The wet season is lengthy, covering most of

475-514: A full intervocalic glottal stop and written as a long vowel with an apostrophe in the middle, as in the plural suffix -oʼob . Some sources describe the plain consonants as aspirated, but Victoria Bricker states "[s]tops that are not glottalized are articulated with lung air without aspiration as in English spill, skill, still." In terms of vowel quality, Yucatec Maya has a straightforward five vowel system: For each of these five vowel qualities,

570-586: A hard surface for attachment. They will frequently grow where undersea currents flow, which allows them to feed on the meiofauna that is swept by. Since undersea currents benefit the corals, they will often grow on or by geographic structures that cause currents, such as continental slopes , cliffs , caves , or undersea plateaus . Species distributions of black corals are poorly understood, and while many deep sea black corals have large distributions, more recent work has indicated that shallow black coral species—such as Antipathes grandis —can be found spanning from

665-474: A high pitch and fall in phrase-final position but rise elsewhere, sometimes without much vowel length. It is indicated in writing by an acute accent (íi ée áa óo úu). Low-tone vowels begin on a low pitch and are sustained in length; they are sometimes indicated in writing by a grave accent (ìi èe àa òo ùu), though the 2014 INALI orthography uses no accent. Also, Yucatec has contrastive laryngealization ( creaky voice ) on long vowels, sometimes realized by means of

760-503: A joyful motherhood. Archeologists continue to unearth small dolls once sacrificed in the fertility rituals. A number of ruins can be found on the island, most from the Post-Classic period. The largest Maya ruins on the island were near the downtown area and have now been destroyed. Today, the largest remaining ruins are at San Gervasio , located approximately at the center of the island. The first Spanish expedition to visit Cozumel

855-415: A mixture of cultures that escaped to the warm embrace of Cozumel. Dating back to the mid-1800s, Cozumel Carnaval was started by young people dressed in vibrantly colorful costumes known as "Estudiantinas" or "Comparsas", who expressed themselves in the streets of Cozumel through the artforms of dance, song, and fantasy. Cozumel Municipality is one of eleven municipalities of Quintana Roo . The municipal seat

950-585: A period of peace. When war broke out, such progress was stalled. By the 15th century, the city of Tula had collapsed and was abandoned. The Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus traded with Maya merchants off the coast of Yucatán during his expedition for the Spanish Crown in 1502, but he never made landfall. During the decade following Columbus's first contact with the Maya, the first Spaniards to set foot on Yucatán soil did so by chance, as survivors of

1045-441: A polyp is anchored, it builds a colony by creating a skeleton, growing new branches and making it thicker, similar to the growth of a tree. This method of growing creates " growth rings " which can be used to estimate the age of a colony. Asexual reproduction can also occur if a branch breaks off and a replacement is needed. Though light is not required for growth or development, mature colonies will grow towards light. Why they do so

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1140-574: A powerboat fatally struck her. The island was struck directly by two Category 4 hurricanes during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season . In July, Hurricane Emily passed just south of Cozumel, exposing the island to the storm's intense inner core. It was the larger, stronger, slower-moving Hurricane Wilma that caused the most destruction when it hit the island in October. A category 5 hurricane with winds over 150 miles per hour, Wilma's eye passed directly over Cozumel. The storm caused some damage to

1235-605: A real black coral is boiled in milk, it will smell of myrrh ; this test can be used to determine if a sample is genuine. The best studied and regulated black coral fisheries are in Hawaii, where they have been harvested since the 1960s. In the Caribbean harvesting is typically done to produce jewelry for sale to tourists, and has followed a boom-and-bust cycle , where new coral populations are discovered and overexploited leading to rapid declines. For example, Cozumel , Mexico,

1330-572: A shipwreck in the Caribbean. The Maya ritually sacrificed most of these men, leaving just two survivors, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero , who somehow rejoined other Spaniards. In 1519, Aguilar accompanied Hernán Cortés to the Yucatán island of Cozumel , and also took part in the conquest of central Mexico. Guerrero became a Mexican legend as father of the first Mestizo : by Aguilar's account, Guerrero "went native". He married native women, wore traditional native apparel, and fought against

1425-410: A small wooden cross. Legend has it that Cárdenas vowed to start an annual festival wherever he settled, to honor the religious power of this crucifix. Today, the original Holy Cross (Santa Cruz) Festival forms part of the wider Festival of El Cedral, which includes fairs, traditional feasts, rodeos, bullfights, music and competitions. The celebrations last about five days in all and are held every year at

1520-461: A system for recording numerals and hieroglyphs that was more complex and efficient than what had come before. They migrated northward and eastward to the Yucatán peninsula from Palenque , Jaina , and Bonampak . In the 12th and 13th centuries, a coalition emerged in the Yucatán peninsula among three important centers, Uxmal , Chichen Itza , and Mayapan . The society grew and the people were able to practice intellectual and artistic achievement during

1615-414: A total area of 477.961 km (184.542 sq mi). It is Mexico's largest Caribbean island, largest permanently inhabited island, and Mexico's third-largest island, following Tiburón Island and Isla Ángel de la Guarda . The population of Cozumel is 88,626 (2020 census). The majority of the island's population lives in the town of San Miguel , which has a population of 84,915 (2020 census). Cozumel

1710-684: Is a municipality which also includes two small areas on the mainland, the ecotourism park of Xel-Ha and the Calica limestone quarry. All combined, Cozumel has a total land area of 647.33 km (249.94 sq mi). Cozumel has 5 main piers . Punta Langosta, the International Pier (SSA), and Puerta Maya are all piers for cruise ships. A ferry pier in San Miguel is used for passenger ferries to and from Playa del Carmen, as well as for cruise ship tenders. A fifth pier south of downtown

1805-419: Is also a habitat to several endangered marine species such as the loggerhead sea turtle , hawksbill sea turtle , queen triggerfish , and the endemic splendid toadfish . Due to the abundant marine life and coral reefs, as well as the clear and warm Caribbean water, Cozumel is considered one of the best scuba-diving destinations in the world. Scuba diving is one of Cozumel's primary attractions, mainly due to

1900-464: Is also taught at: Free online dictionary, grammar and texts: Black coral Antipatharians , also known as black corals or thorn corals , are an order of soft deep-water corals . These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, which are surrounded by their colored polyps (part of coral that is alive). Antipatharians are a cosmopolitan order, existing in nearly every oceanic location and depth, with

1995-511: Is carried by the CDI 's radio stations XEXPUJ-AM ( Xpujil, Campeche ), XENKA-AM ( Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo ) and XEPET-AM ( Peto, Yucatán ). The 2006 film Apocalypto , directed by Mel Gibson , was filmed entirely in Yucatec Maya. The script was translated into Maya by Hilario Chi Canul of the Maya community of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who also worked as a language coach on

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2090-514: Is divided by linguists into the subgroups Mopan-itza and Yucatec-Lacandon. These are made up by four languages: All the languages in the Mayan language family are thought to originate from an ancestral language that was spoken some 5,000 years ago, known as Proto-Mayan . The Maya had been in a stable decline when Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1517 AD. From 200 to 800 AD the Maya were thriving and making great technological advances. They created

2185-427: Is high in the developmental hierarchy, and features like [fricative], [apical], or [fortis] are found to be later acquired. Like almost all Mayan languages, Yucatec Maya is verb-initial. Word order varies between VOS and VSO, with VOS being the most common. Many sentences may appear to be SVO, but this order is due to a topic–comment system similar to that of Japanese. One of the most widely studied areas of Yucatec

2280-643: Is instead called Proto-Mayan . The designation "Yucatec Maya" has been understood by generations of US scholars to refer to the Yucatan Peninsula. However, "Yucateco" amongst Mexicans, especially non-academics, has always primarily referenced the state of Yucatan (located in the northwestern corner of the Peninsula with the same name) and, in particular, the ethnic-national identity and culture of this state. Thus, Maya linguists from Quintana Roo, for example Jaime Chi and Edber Dzidz Yam, have identified that

2375-568: Is located in San Miguel de Cozumel , the largest city in the municipality. Cave dive sites: Yucatec Maya language According to the Hocabá dictionary, compiled by American anthropologist Victoria Bricker , there is a variant name mayab tʼàan [majabˈtʼàːn] , literally 'flat speech' ). A popular, yet false, alternative etymology of Mayab is ma ya'ab or 'not many, the few', which derives from New Age spiritualist interpretations of

2470-464: Is located on the north edge of the island. San Miguel de Cozumel , the main town on the island, is home to many restaurants with a variety of cuisines, along with several discothèques, bars, cinemas, and outdoor stages. The main plaza is surrounded by shops; in the middle of the plaza is a fixed stage where Cozumeleños (people of Cozumel) and tourists celebrate every Sunday evening with music and dancing. All food and manufactured supplies are shipped to

2565-456: Is making jewelry. Black corals have been declining in numbers and are expected to continue declining due to the effects of poaching , ocean acidification and climate change . Despite its name, a black coral is rarely black, and depending on the species can be white, red, green, yellow, or brown. The corals derive their name from their black skeletons, which are composed of protein and chitin. Black corals are also known as thorn corals due to

2660-820: Is poaching— though the majority of black coral fisheries are heavily regulated, there is still a black market for the corals. Particularly on tropical islands and Madagascar , the market for illegally-harvested black corals is large. Due to overfishing of mature corals, in some areas nearly 90% of corals are juveniles (less than 50 cm (19.7 in) tall.) Global warming is the primary threat to black corals worldwide, as well as all other corals. Though black corals rarely builds reefs (the most threatened areas), threats caused by climate change such as coral bleaching , rising sea temperatures, changing underwater currents, and changing salinity and pH also affect deep-sea corals. Invasive species such as Carijoa riisei , which were introduced to Hawaiian waters by humans, may pose

2755-455: Is the semantics of time in the language. Yucatec, like many other languages of the world ( Chinese , Kalaallisut , arguably Guaraní and others) does not have the grammatical category of tense . Temporal information is encoded by a combination of aspect , inherent lexical aspect ( aktionsart ), and pragmatically governed conversational inferences. Yucatec is unusual in lacking temporal connectives such as 'before' and 'after'. Another aspect of

2850-486: Is unknown. Sexual reproduction in these corals remains largely unstudied. It occurs after the coral colony is established; a colony will produce eggs and sperm , which meet in the water to create larvae that use currents to disperse and settle in new areas. The larval stage of the coral, called a planula , will drift along until it finds a surface on which it can grow. Once it settles, it metamorphoses into its polyp form and creates skeletal material to attach itself to

2945-503: Is used only for vehicle ferries . Large parts of the island are covered with mangrove forest which has many endemic animal species. Cozumel is a flat island based on limestone , resulting in a karst topography . The highest natural point on the island is less than 15 m (49 ft) above sea level. The cenotes are water-filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through the soft limestone soil for thousands of years. Eighteen deep cenotes and more than 250 shallow bodies exist on

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3040-579: The Mexican states of Yucatán , some parts of Campeche , Tabasco , Chiapas , and Quintana Roo , Yucatec Maya is still the mother tongue of a large segment of the population in the early 21st century. It has approximately 800,000 speakers in this region. There were an additional 2,518 speakers of Yucatec Maya in Belize as of the 2010 national census. Recently, scholars in the fields of history and anthropology have raised ethical and political questions about

3135-585: The Roman alphabet ) were written by Maya notaries between 1557 and 1851. These works can now be found in the United States, Mexico, and Spain in libraries and archives. A characteristic feature of Yucatec Maya, like other Mayan languages, is the use of ejective consonants : /pʼ/, /tʼ/, /kʼ/ . Often referred to as glottalized consonants, they are produced at the same place of oral articulation as their non-ejective stop counterparts: /p/, /t/, /k/ . However,

3230-749: The Spanish Empire from 1542 to 1821. During the colonization of the Yucatán peninsula, the Spanish believed that in order to evangelize and govern the Maya, they needed to reform Yucatec Maya. They wanted to shape it to serve their ends of religious conversion and social control. Spanish religious missionaries undertook a project of linguistic and social transformation known as reducción (from Spanish reducir). The missionaries translated Catholic Christian religious texts from Spanish into Yucatec Maya and created neologisms to express Catholic religious concepts. The result of this process of reducción

3325-474: The glottalized plosives /pʼ tʼ kʼ ɓ/ and is followed by an identical consonant, the final consonant may dispose of its point of articulation and become the glottal stop /ʔ/. This may also happen before another plosive inside a common idiomatic phrase or compound word . Examples: [majaɓˈtʼàːn] ~ [majaʔˈtʼàːn] 'Yucatec Maya' (literally, "flat speech"), and náak’- [náːkʼ-] (a prefix meaning 'nearby') + káan [ká̰ːn] 'sky' gives [ˈnáːʔká̰ːn] 'palate, roof

3420-654: The "first ever Mayan telenovela ," premiered in August 2013. Jesús Pat Chablé is often credited with being one of the first Maya-language rappers and producers. In the 2018 video game Shadow of the Tomb Raider , the inhabitants of the game's Paititi region speak in Yucatec Maya (while immersion mode is on). The modern bible edition, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

3515-616: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( CITES ), it is still possible to buy them. Though various methods have been proposed for quicker and more efficient rejuvenation of black coral colonies, none have worked to the point where these corals could be commercially farmed. Though black corals are not listed on the IUCN Red List , a number of factors threaten them today. The largest single threat

3610-540: The Indian to the Pacific Ocean. Black corals are carnivorous, with the coral's polyps allowing it to feed mostly on meiofauna such as zooplankton . The polyps of cnidarians have an oral disk in their center which serves as the mouth for the coral. The disk is surrounded by the tentacles, which stings and digests food. The reason many corals are fan-shaped is to catch meiofauna. Many corals only have polyps on

3705-533: The Maya. The use of "Mayab" as the name of the language seems to be unique to the town of Hocabá , as indicated by the Hocabá dictionary and is not employed elsewhere in the region or in Mexico, by either Spanish or Maya speakers. As used in Hocabá, "Mayab" is not the recognized name of the language, but instead a "nickname" derived from a common nickname for the region, the Mayab ("Mayab, the land of pheasant and deer"),

3800-413: The Spanish. Francisco de Montejo 's military incursion of Yucatán took three generations and three wars with extended fighting, which lasted a total of 24 years. As the Spanish colonists settled more areas, in the 18th century they developed the lands for large maize plantations and cattle farms. The elite lived in haciendas and exported natural resources as commodities. The Maya were subjects of

3895-508: The above scholars argue, to continue to use the phrase "Yucatec Maya" to refer to either the people or the language instead of the proper name, that is, Maya, used by the speakers of this language would be an injustice. On the new politics of using Maya and not Mayan as an ethnic label see: Yucatec Maya forms part of the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan language family. The Yucatecan branch

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3990-605: The ancestor of modern Yucatec Maya, Itza , Lacandon and Mopan . Even further back, the language is ultimately related to all other Maya languages through proto-Mayan itself. Yucatec Maya is now written in the Latin script . This was introduced during the Spanish Conquest of Yucatán which began in the early 16th century, and the now-antiquated conventions of Spanish orthography of that period ("Colonial orthography") were adapted to transcribe Yucatec Maya. This included

4085-554: The bachelor's level. The Festival of Santa Cruz and El Cedral Fair is a historical tradition held in the town of El Cedral, in the south of Cozumel Island at the end of April. This annual event is said to have been started over 150 years ago by Casimiro Cárdenas. Cárdenas was one of a group that fled to the island from the village of Saban, on the mainland, after an attack during the Caste War of Yucatán in 1848. The attackers killed other villagers, but Cárdenas survived while clutching

4180-428: The continued use of the label "Yucatec Maya" to the language that is known and named by native speakers as simply "Maya" (see Castañeda (2021), Castillo Cocom (2021), Hernandez Reyna and Castillo Cocom (2021), Restall (2004), Restall and Gabbert (2017). These scholars argue, both explicitly and implicitly, that the use of "Yucatec Maya" manifests a continuation and propagation of neocolonial relationships, specifically

4275-402: The coral beds has been observed. Due to the slow life cycle and deep-water habitats of black coral, little is known about their life cycle and reproduction. As with other cnidarians, the life cycle of these corals involves both asexual and sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction (also known as budding ), is the first method of reproduction used by a black coral during their lifespan. Once

4370-491: The coral reef on the western shore of Cozumel. These coral reefs are protected from the open ocean by the island's natural geography. In 1996, the government of Mexico also established the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park , forbidding anyone from touching or removing any marine life within the park boundaries. Despite the importance of healthy reefs to Cozumel's tourist trade, a deepwater pier

4465-411: The detrimental effects tourism has on the ecosystem of Cozumel. In addition to restaurants, hotels, and dive shops, vendors near the ports sell a variety of souvenirs and jewelry. All of these contribute greatly to the economy of Cozumel. Other water activities include para-sailing, kitesurfing , and a tourist submarine. There are also two dolphinariums . The only working pearl farm in the Caribbean

4560-417: The downstream side of the coral, allowing them to catch nearly the same number of animals without wasting energy keeping unnecessary polyps alive. Vertebrate predation is not a major threat to black corals. There are rare reports of parrotfish and butterflyfish gnawing and eating at the polyps of black corals, but even if a polyp is gnawed off, it will not affect the coral as a whole. The skeleton of

4655-413: The earliest syllable with a long vowel. If there is no long vowel, then the last syllable is stressed. Borrowings from other languages such as Spanish or Nahuatl are often stressed as in the original languages. An important morphophonological process in Yucatec Maya is the dissimilation of identical consonants next to each other by debuccalizing to avoid geminate consonants . If a word ends in one of

4750-503: The early part of the 1st millennium AD, and older Preclassic Olmec artifacts have been found on the island as well. The island was sacred to Ixchel , the Maya Moon Goddess of fertility. In the Mayan culture, all women were required to travel to the island at least once to worship Ixchel . She was the wife of Itzamna, the supreme Mayan lord of the skies of the night and of the day. The women asked Ixchel for fertility and for

4845-534: The end of April or beginning of May. The Cozumel Carnival or Carnaval de Cozumel is one of the most important carnival festivities in México. It has been celebrated as a tradition beginning from the late nineteenth century and fills Cozumel's streets with parades. It begins the week before Mardi-Gras in February. Cozumel's Carnival is a tradition which has been passed down through many generations that celebrates

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4940-466: The ensuing years, Cozumel was often the target of attacks by pirates, and in 1650, many of the islanders were forcibly relocated to the mainland town of Xcan Boloná to avoid the buccaneers' predation. Later, in 1688, most of the rest of the island's population, as well as many of the settlements along the Quintana Roo coast, were evacuated inland to towns such as Chemax . In 1848, refugees escaping

5035-428: The few that there are vary across species, similar to other corals. When black corals were first documented by Henri Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime , two French zoologists in 1857, all species of Antipatharia were placed in the family Antipathidae . From 2001 to 2006, marine biologists Dennis Opresko and Tina Molodtsova helped transform the taxonomic system into what it is today. A 2007 phylogenetic study confirmed

5130-497: The final consonant is often reflected in orthographies, so [majaʔˈtʼàːn] can appear as maya’ t’àan , maya t'aan , etc. Phonology acquisition is received idiosyncratically. If a child seems to have severe difficulties with affricates and sibilants, another might have no difficulties with them while having significant problems with sensitivity to semantic content, unlike the former child. There seems to be no incremental development in phonology patterns. Monolingual children learning

5225-560: The island continued to help the Spanish re-supply their ships with food and water so they could continue their voyages. Gerónimo de Aguilar , a captive of the Mayans, was rescued at this time. As many as 10,000 Maya lived on the island in the early 1500s, but in 1520, infected crew members of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition brought the smallpox contagion to the island, and by 1570, only 186 men and 172 women were left alive on Cozumel. In

5320-787: The island is sectioned off into the Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park . This park is protected under the Ramsar Convention along with Manglares y Humedales del Norte de Isla Cozumel; they both are included in the UNESCO protected area called Isla Cozumel Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. The reefs in Cozumel are made up of hard coral and soft coral . The marine life that inhabit the reefs include zoanthids , polychaetes , actinarians , hydroids , sponges , crustaceans , mollusks , echinoderms , and many varieties of Caribbean fish. The park

5415-415: The island. Many are under dense vegetation. Jade Cavern Cozumel (Cenote Chempita) near El Cedral is often visited by tourists. Endemic species and subspecies of bird include Endemic dwarf mammals are found on the island include Three rodents of Cozumel are larger than their mainland counterparts : Oryzomys couesi , Peromyscus leucopus , and critically endangered Reithrodontomys spectabilis ,

5510-737: The island. Water is provided by three different desalination facilities located on the island. There are three universities on the island: the State Public University of Quintana Roo (UQROO) and two private universities, the Partenon Institute and the Interamerican University for Development (UNID). In addition to teaching English as a degree program, they offer other career options including natural resources research, tourism and commercial systems. The Cozumel Arts University offers artist education at

5605-470: The language contrasts four distinct vowel "shapes", i.e. combinations of vowel length , tone , and phonation . In the standard orthography first adopted in 1984, vowel length is indicated by digraphs (e.g. "aa" for IPA [aː] ). In fast-paced speech, the glottalized long vowels may be pronounced the same as the plain long high vowels, so in such contexts ka’an [ká̰ːn] 'sky' sounds the same as káan [káːn] 'when?'. Mayan words are typically stressed on

5700-503: The language have shown acquisition of aspiration and deobstruentization but difficulty with sibilants and affricates, and other children show the reverse. Also, some children have been observed fronting palatoalveolars, others retract lamino-alveolars, and still others retract both. Glottalization was not found to be any more difficult than aspiration. That is significant with the Yucatec Mayan use of ejectives. Glottal constriction

5795-424: The language is the core-argument marking strategy, which is a ' fluid S system' in the typology of Dixon (1994) where intransitive subjects are encoded like agents or patients based upon a number of semantic properties as well as the perfectivity of the event. The Maya were literate in pre-Columbian times, when the language was written using Maya script . The language itself can be traced back to proto-Yucatecan,

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5890-472: The latter of which is also endemic to the island. Endemic marine life includes Other native wildlife includes Invasive species include The Cozumel flag displays a swallow on a blue and white background. The blue background represents the sea, while the white represents the purity of the Mayans . The sun represents the position of the island in the eastern region of the country, and the swallow indicates

5985-468: The meaning of the word Cozumel in the Mayan language. The sword is Spanish and represents the conquest of the island by the Spaniards in 1521. Cozumel is surrounded by a diverse ecosystem of coral reefs that is home to more than 1,000 marine species. The reefs are primarily found on underwater cliffs; some exist in coastal lagoons and on sand bars at the north tip of the island. These reefs are part of

6080-703: The microscopic spines lining their skeletons. The name Antipatharia comes from the Ancient Greek word antipathes ("against disease"). In the Hawaiian language , a black coral is called ʻēkaha kū moana ("hard bush growing in the sea"); it is the official state gem of Hawaii . In Malay , the corals are called akah bahar ("root of the sea"), likely named for their tendency to grow at low-light depths. Black corals have historically been difficult to classify due to poor-quality specimens . They have few distinguishing morphological characteristics, and

6175-413: The months, with September and October being the wettest, when precipitation averages over 240 millimeters (9.4 in). Thunderstorms can occasionally occur during the wet season. Temperatures tend to remain stable with little variation from month to month, though the temperatures are cooler from December to February. The coolest month, January, averages 22.9 °C (73.2 °F). Owing to its proximity to

6270-504: The mouth' (so literally "nearby-sky"). Meanwhile, if the final consonant is one of the other consonants, it debuccalizes to /h/: nak [nak] 'to stop sth' + -kúuns [-kúːns] (a causative suffix) gives nahkúuns [nahˈkúːns] 'to support sb/sth' (cf. the homophones nah , possessed form nahil , 'house'; and nah , possessed form nah , 'obligation'), náach’ [náːtʃ] 'far' + -chah [-tʃah] (an inchoative suffix) gives náahchah [ˈnáːhtʃah] 'to become distant'. This change in

6365-400: The much larger Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System , which is the second largest reef in the world, stretching over 1,000 kilometers (620 mi). Cozumel's deeper coral reefs were historically famed for their black corals , yet black coral populations declined from the 1960s to the mid-1990s because of overharvesting and by 2016 had not recovered. A large portion of the reef on the south side of

6460-428: The name in order to clearly distinguish it from all other Mayan languages (such as Kʼicheʼ and Itzaʼ ). Thus, the use of the term Yucatec Maya to refer to the language is scholarly or scientific nomenclature. Native speakers do not qualify the language as Yucatec , calling it "Maaya", "maayaʼ tʼàan", or "maasewal t'aan" (literally 'commoner language') in their language and simply (el) maya when speaking Spanish. In

6555-483: The new taxonomic system. Blacks corals are classified in the order Antipatharia with 7 families, 44 genera, and 280 distinct species. The families are Antipathidae, Aphanipathidae, Cladopathidae , Leiopathidae , Myriopathidae , Schizopathidae , and Stylopathidae . Black corals can be distinguished from other corals by their black, flexible skeletons and near-total lack of any kind of protection from sediment. All black corals have small or medium-sized polyps and

6650-777: The oldest living organisms on earth. The researchers showed that the "individual colony longevities are on the order of thousands of years." Rarely, black corals will grow too large to support their own weight, and collapse. Black corals have historically been associated with mystical and medicinal properties in Indonesian , Chinese , and Hawaiian culture. More recent harvesting has been for use as jewelry. Many Indo-Pacific peoples believed that black coral has curative and anti-evil powers and made them into necklace and bracelets ; however, black corals are not ideal for jewelry-making due to it being soft as opposed to stony , causing jewelry made with it to dry out and break. If

6745-603: The polyps that the coral typically feeds on and is taken inside of the coral. They will then consume the polyps from the inside out. Various mollusks, such as Coralliophila kaofitorum and Phenacovolva carneptica live solely where various species of black corals are found, suggesting that they prey exclusively on the species. Black corals around the world provide a unique environment for crustaceans , bivalves , and fish. Some species, such as Dascyllus albisella and Centropyge potteri inhabit specific coral trees. Due to this abundance of species, nighttime predation around

6840-689: The production. In the video game Civilization V: Gods & Kings , Pacal, leader of the Maya, speaks in Yucatec Maya. In August 2012, the Mozilla Translathon 2012 event brought over 20 Yucatec Mayan speakers together in a localization effort for the Google Endangered Languages Project , the Mozilla browser, and the MediaWiki software used by Misplaced Pages and other Wikimedia projects. Baktun ,

6935-408: The release of the lingual closure is preceded by a raising of the closed glottis to increase the air pressure in the space between the glottis and the point of closure, resulting in a release with a characteristic popping sound. The sounds are written using an apostrophe after the letter to distinguish them from the plain consonants ( tʼàan "speech" vs. táan "forehead"). The apostrophes indicating

7030-565: The rest of its life. The male to female polyp ratio is 1:1, with females producing anywhere from 1.2 million to 16.9 million oocytes . A large 1.8 m (5.91 ft) tall coral tree is somewhere between 30 and 40 years old. The estimated natural lifespan of a black coral colony in the epipelagic zone is 70 years. However, in March 2009 around 4,265 years old specimens of Leiopathes glaberrima were found at depths of nearly 300 to 3,000 m (984 to 9,840 ft), making them some of

7125-435: The scientific imperialism of linguistics and the cultural hegemony of anglophone academia. The term "Yucatec Maya" was invented in the early-mid 20th century by linguists so as to not confuse themselves with the use of word "Maya" (the actual name of the language) when this was used to reference the ancestral language ( proto-language ) of all the Mayan languages ; this ancestral language is now no longer called "Proto-Maya", but

7220-417: The sea, the island is fairly humid, with an average humidity of 83%. The wettest recorded month was October 1980, with 792 millimeters (31.2 in) of precipitation and the wettest recorded day was June 19, 1975, with 281 millimeters (11.1 in). Extremes range from 9.2 °C (48.6 °F)—recorded January 18, 1977—to 39.2 °C (102.6 °F). The Maya are believed to have first settled Cozumel by

7315-424: The seafloor. It will then begin to bud, which will create new polyps and eventually form a colony. In areas with ideal conditions, black coral colonies can grow to be extremely dense, creating beds. In some black corals that have been closely examined, colonies will grow roughly 6.4 cm (2.52 in) every year. Sexual reproduction occurs after 10 to 12 years of growth; the colony will then reproduce annually for

7410-473: The skeleton as the coral grows. The polyps that live inside this bark are less than 2 mm (0.0787 in) and are gelatinous and have six tentacles (the same as hard corals and unlike soft corals, which have eight). These polyps can be nearly any color. Some corals also have "sweeper tentacles", which can grow up to 15 mm (0.591 in) long. Though individual polyps are either male or female, entire colonies are typically hermaphroditic . Unlike

7505-604: The sole exception of brackish waters. However, they are most frequently found on continental slopes under 50 m (164 ft) deep. A black coral reproduces both sexually and asexually throughout its lifetime. Many black corals provide housing, shelter, food, and protection for other animals. Black corals were originally classified in the subclass Ceriantipatharia along with ceriantharians (tube-dwelling anemones), but were later reclassified under Hexacorallia . Though they have historically been used by Pacific Islanders for medical treatment and in rituals, its only modern use

7600-537: The sounds were not common in written Maya until the 20th century but are now becoming more common. The Mayan b is also glottalized, an implosive /ɓ/ , and is sometimes written bʼ , but that is becoming less common. Yucatec Maya is one of only three Mayan languages to have developed tone , the others being Uspantek and one dialect of Tzotzil . Yucatec distinguishes short vowels and long vowels, indicated by single versus double letters (ii ee aa oo uu), and between high- and low-tone long vowels. High-tone vowels begin on

7695-440: The surface down to the deep-sea, though nearly 75% of species are only found at depths below 50 m (164 ft). The sole oceanic area in which black corals have not been found are brackish waters , though they can inhabit areas with decreased salinity . Black corals are found on reefs, and may contribute to overall reef building, but are also often found as solitary colonies on isolated outcroppings. Most individuals require

7790-437: The term actually introduces confusion, given that in common understanding among Mexicans the name Maya refers to the peoples and language living throughout the Peninsula while the phrase "Yucatec Maya" would seem to denote a dialect of the Maya language that is spoken in the state of Yucatan, Mexico, in contrast to other regional dialects of Maya such as spoken in the states of Quintana Roo, or Campeche and in northern Belize. Thus,

7885-514: The tumult of the Caste War of Yucatán settled on the island, and in 1849 the town of San Miguel de Cozumel was officially recognized by the Mexican government. In 1861, American President Abraham Lincoln ordered his Secretary of State, William Henry Seward , to meet with the Mexican chargé d'affaires Matias Romero to explore the possibility of purchasing the island of Cozumel for the purpose of relocating freed American slaves offshore. The idea

7980-514: The underwater marine habitat. This included the coral reefs, which suffered particularly at the shallower dive sites, and the fish that inhabit the reefs. Trees, power lines, and cell phone towers were blown down, cars over-turned, piers washed away, windows smashed, roads collapsed, and new rivers appeared. The economy of Cozumel is based on tourism, including daily visits from cruise ship passengers , as well as tourists scuba diving , snorkeling , and charter fishing . Some controversy exists over

8075-484: The use of ⟨x⟩ for the postalveolar fricative sound (which is often written in English as ⟨sh⟩ ). In colonial times a "reversed c" ⟨ɔ⟩ was often used to represent /t͡sʼ/ (the alveolar ejective affricate ). This sound is now represented by ⟨tzʼ⟩ in the revised ALMG orthography and ⟨tsʼ⟩ in the INALI orthography. Yucatec-language programming

8170-541: The use of which emerged in the colonial period. This use may also derive from the title of a self-published book by a Yucatec scholar, Santiago Pacheco Cruz (1969). The meaning and origins of "Maya" as the name of the language (versus Mayab) and as the ethnic identity (ethnonym) are complex questions — see etymology and social history of the word as ethnic identity and name of the language in Restall (2004) and Restall and Gabbert (2017). Linguists have added Yucatec to

8265-403: The vast majority of other corals, black corals have no protection against abrasive materials such as sand and rocks and lack muscular development which can help the corals to hide. These factors can lead to sediment tearing the soft tissue, resulting in death. In response, corals live near crevices, which allows much of their body to be protected. Black corals occur throughout all the oceans from

8360-471: Was Maya reducido , a semantically transformed version of Yucatec Maya. Missionaries attempted to end Maya religious practices and destroy associated written works. By their translations, they also shaped a language that was used to convert , subjugate, and govern the Maya population of the Yucatán peninsula. But Maya speakers appropriated Maya reducido for their own purposes, resisting colonial domination. The oldest written records in Maya reducido (which used

8455-474: Was built in the 1990s for cruise ships to dock, causing damage to the reefs, and it is now a regular stop on cruises in the Caribbean. Over the past few decades, coral reef health has significantly declined in Cozumel, with much lower coral cover now present than was historically recorded. In September 2019, the Marine Park of Cozumel began to close reefs periodically for rehabilitation. They currently close

8550-517: Was derived from the Mayan "Cuzamil" (also spelled "Cutzmil") or "Ah Cuzamil Peten" in full, which means "the island of swallows" (Spanish: Isla de las Golondrinas ). The island is located in the Caribbean Sea along the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula about 82 km (51 mi) south of Cancún and 19 km (12 mi) from the mainland. The island is about 48 km (30 mi) long and 16 km (9.9 mi) wide, with

8645-506: Was famed for dense black coral beds that have been harvested since the 1960s leading to widespread black coral population declines. Despite improvements in management in Cozumel, including no harvesting permits issued since the mid-1990s, the black coral population had failed to recover when assessed in 2016. Though it is illegal to move black corals across international borders without authorization, as they are listed in Appendix II of

8740-471: Was led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. In the following year, Hernán Cortés stopped by the island on his way to Veracruz. The Grijalva and Cortés expeditions were both received peacefully by the Maya of Cozumel (unlike their experiences on other parts of the mainland). Even after Cortés destroyed some of the Maya idols on Cozumel and replaced them with an image of the Virgin Mary, the native inhabitants of

8835-438: Was never a US military base. By 1944, it was only used for emergencies and by the Mexican military. Eventually, Transportes Aeros Mexicanos began using the airport for domestic flights. Cozumel International Airport was built in the late 1970s and expanded in 1999. On December 18, 2000, 41-year-old British singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl , died while holidaying there with her sons and her boyfriend musician, James Knight, when

8930-553: Was released in the Maya language in 2019. It's distributed without charge, both printed and online editions . On December 4, 2019, the Congress of Yucatán unanimously approved a measure requiring the teaching of the Maya language in schools in the state. Yucatec Maya is spoken by the fictional underwater kingdom of Talokan and its king Kukulkan in the 2022 film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever . In addition to universities and private institutions in Mexico, (Yucatec) Maya

9025-476: Was summarily dismissed by Mexican President Benito Juarez , and Juarez is still revered by the people of Cozumel because of this action. In 1862, Lincoln did manage to establish a short-lived colony of ex-slaves on Île à Vache off the coast of Haiti. Work on the original Cozumel airport began when the US needed a stopover to aid World War II planes. While it was able to handle jet aircraft and international flights, it

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