Mayan languages
Overview
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. Since the Mesoamerican pre-classic period (ca. 2500 BC to AD 250), they have been a part of a highly complex social fabric of kingdoms and city-states. Some of the largest and most well-known of these include Tikal, Calakmul, and Copán.
Classification
The Mayan language family is one of the best-documented and most studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 5,000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method.
The family is divided into five branches: Huastecan, Quichean, Yucatecan, Qanjobalan, and Mamean. The Huastecan branch is geographically separated from the others and is the only branch to have developed outside the Maya heartland in the highlands of Guatemala.
Phonology
Mayan languages are characterized by their complex phonotactics (the permissible arrangements of sounds in a language). The phonological systems of Mayan languages are relatively small, with phonemic inventories usually comprising approximately 18-30 consonants and 5-7 vowels. However, they are also highly complex, with a large number of phonetic distinctions, vowel and consonant length, tone, and, in some languages, stress.
Grammar
Mayan languages are agglutinative, polysynthetic languages. They use affixes to indicate grammatical relationships and have complex morphological rules. The typical word order in Mayan languages is verb–subject–object (VSO), but the order can be changed to emphasize a different part of the sentence.
Writing System
The Maya civilization was the only civilization in the Americas to develop a fully-fledged writing system. The script, often called Hieroglyphic or Logo-Syllabic, was capable of representing all the sounds of the Mayan languages. It was used to write a wide range of texts, from historical annals and astronomical tables to courtly poetry and mythological narratives.
Modern Mayan Languages
Today, the Mayan languages are still spoken by millions of people across Mesoamerica. They continue to be used in daily life, in literature, and in the media. However, they are also under threat, with some languages facing extinction due to a variety of social and political pressures.