The languages of the Maya
The tongue is one of the most important cultural values of all civilization, its creation and expansion being essential to turn a small culture into one that survives the centuries. Many of the great languages of the classical peoples have been lost, or have "died" and their use has passed. to be occasional, but a few have managed to stay even with less prominence for centuries later. To comment on one of them in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about the languages of the mayans.
Index
- The culture of the Mayans
- History of the Mayan language
- List of Mayan languages
The culture of the Mayans.
The Mayan culture It is one of the most interesting in the Mesoamerican area and in the world in general, being a civilization that managed to survive for centuries, with a influence outside the common and that he was able to go ahead of many elements with respect to Western European culture, being much more advanced in many aspects.
The influence of the Maya practically encompassed
the entire Mesoamerican zone, being especially important in the area that we know as the Yucatan Peninsula, being where its most important political areas and cultures were found.To better understand him Mayan empire we should talk about their main featuresIt is important to see how the vast majority of its characteristics are common to the Mesoamerican peoples that emerged later. Some of these characteristics are the following:
- The form of government was a monarchy theocratic, so the king could be a priest, shaman, or be related in some way to the Mayan religion.
- There was a great hierarchy, differentiating political, military and religious figures from peasant women, these being the lowest part of Mayan society.
- The foundation of the society was farmingThe main products being those of the area, but corn being especially important compared to the rest of the agricultural elements.
- The Mayans were great artists, as evidenced by both its crafts and its great architectural works created to honor the different gods that made up its pantheon.
- There were many languages, not being therefore none the main Mayan language.
Image: Slideshare
History of the language of the Mayans.
The source of the Mayan languages can be found in the so-called proto-maya, being the first language of the Mayan culture and whose origin is undetermined. The other languages of this civilization are born from Proto-Mayan, and that is why in 1500 BC C. There were some divisions of the language, an example being the settlers who marched south who spoke Mameana and Quichean, or those who marched north and spoke Yucatec and Cholano. Therefore, in this situation, all of Mesoamerica was made up of numerous languages, all of them coming from Proto-Mayan, Mayan culture and, therefore, Mayan languages.
For centuries and centuries the Mayan languages populated the entire Mesoamerican area but all this ended with the arrival of European colonizers, all languages being set aside for the use of Spanish as the main language. It must be said that although all Mesoamerican languages were separated by Spanish, the Mayan zone was the that most maintained their customs, which is the reason why in many areas of Mesoamerica today some of the Mayan languages are still used.
List of Mayan languages.
To continue with this lesson on the languages of the Mayans we must talk about some of them, explaining their peculiarities and the differentiation that exists within them, in order to understand their relevance in the American world current. We must bear in mind that not all Mayan languages survived to European colonization, although the number is extremely high compared to other cultures.
The Mayan languages are a family of languages spoken throughout Mesoamerica, although their areas of greatest influence are Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, therefore coinciding with the area of greatest influence of the Mayan culture. At the arrival of the European colonizers there were already many languages for the Mayans, there being no single language of the culture, but also From that moment to the present, Mayan languages have evolved even more, causing numerous new languages whose base is Proto-Mayan.
Not all the languages of the Mayans are the same, so below we comment on all the varieties of Mayan languages existing. The list of these languages are as follows:
- Huasteco: It is spoken by about 110,000 people in the Mexican states of Veracruz and San Luis Potosí.
- Yucatecan: The Mayan language with the largest number of speakers in Mexico, with up to 800,000 speakers.
- Cholano: They are a set of languages that during a great part of Mayan history enjoyed great importance, although at present the number of speakers is extremely small.
- Tzeltalano: Some languages related to the Cholanas, characterized by the existence of numerous monolingual speakers.
- Kanjobalano: A language spoken by more than 70,000 people in Guatemala.
- Quiché-Mameano: A group of languages spoken in the Guatemalan mountains.
- Mamean: An important set of languages whose localization is between Guatemala and a small group of people in Mexico.
- Quichean: The Mayan language with the highest number of speakers, with about 2 million speakers in the mountains of Guatemala.
Image: Spanish Language Promoter
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