In terms of vowel quality, Yucatec Maya has a straightforward five vowel system:

For each of these five vowel qualities, 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 ).

In fast-paced speech, the glottalized long vowels may be pronounced the

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