Editing Yucatec Maya language (section)

===Debuccalization===
An important [[morphophonology|morphophonological]] process in Yucatec Maya is the [[dissimilation]] of identical consonants next to each other by [[debuccalization|debuccalizing]] to avoid [[geminate consonant]]s. If a word ends in one of the [[glottalization|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: {{IPA|[majaɓˈtʼàːn]}} ~ {{IPA|[majaʔˈtʼàːn]}} 'Yucatec Maya' (literally, "flat speech"), and ''náak’-'' {{IPA|[náːkʼ-]}} (a prefix meaning 'nearby') + ''káan'' {{IPA|[ká̰ːn]}} 'sky' gives {{IPA|[ˈnáːʔká̰ːn]}} 'palate, roof the mouth' (so literally "nearby-sky").

Meanwhile, if the final consonant is one of the other consonants, it debuccalizes to /h/: ''nak'' {{IPA|[nak]}} 'to stop sth' + ''-kúuns'' {{IPA|[-kúːns]}} (a [[causative]] suffix) gives ''nahkúuns'' {{IPA|[nahˈkúːns]}} 'to support sb/sth' (cf. the [[homophone]]s ''nah'', possessed form ''nahil'', 'house'; and ''nah'', possessed form ''nah'', 'obligation'), ''náach’'' {{IPA|[náːtʃ]}} 'far' + ''-chah'' {{IPA|[-tʃah]}} (an [[inchoative]] suffix) gives ''náahchah'' {{IPA|[ˈnáːhtʃah]}} 'to become distant'.

This change in the final consonant is often reflected in orthographies, so {{IPA|[majaʔˈtʼàːn]}} can appear as ''maya’ t’àan'', ''maya t'aan'', etc.