THE MAYA ( MACRO-MAYAN ) LANGUAGES

1. MAYAN LANGUAGES

The Mayan languages are spoken in South Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras in close places.The only exception is the Huastec language in the North.This is the biggest and the oldest culture of Middle America.Their ancient history is still history of the ambiguous.The Mayan people started in BC 3,113. They have constituted states and theirarchitectural, sidereal, literary and art knowledge is commanding . Their written codexes (except three of them) has been destroyed by the conquistadors (Diego de Lanza Bishop).The Pre-Mayan civilization was in the place of coast of Pacific Ocean near Chiapas and Guatemala in the Mountains of Guatemala.

1. Pre-Mayan civilization

2. Classical Mayan

A Pre-classical B C 1.000-AC 250-30.

b. Classic AC 250-1,000

c. Post-Classic AC 1.000-AC 1.250

The origin of the spoken Mayan languages is the Proto-Mayan basic language. (MayanNab’ee). This Proto-Mayan languages evolved 4,500-5,000 years ago. It was sopken in Guatemala Chuchumatanes. According to the supposition of Lyle Campbell and Terence Kaufmann the Huasteco language exuded from the basic language first 4.200 years ago, and it was followed by the Proto-Yucatean language 3,600 years ago, and the Proto-Cholan and the Proto Tzeltallanguages. Those people who spoke the Proto-Cholan languages moved to the Mexican Chiapas Uplands and they met the Proto-Mixean-Zoquean languages .  In the Classic peroid two Mayan languages have been evolved, caleed the Classic Mayan.They are documented by hieroglyphs.

1.The Classic Mayan language is the origin of the Yucatecan-Mayan languages 
(Yucatec, Itza, Mopan, Lacandon).

2.The Classic language is the origin of the Cholan languages in the Chipas province
 (Chontal, Ch’ol, Ch’orti)

The most important brace to understand the classical languages is the Motul Dictionary. It was written in around 1580-1590. It contains about 10,000 words and expressions. It is Spanish-Mayan and Mayan-Spanish.The Mayan languages have been known and documented since the 16th century. The inner classification and realtionship of the Mayan language families are proven. Earlier it wasclassified as a part of the North American Penutian languages.

But the interpretation of the geographical distance and the relationship of the languageunits became an outworn idea.The Mayan Macro languages phonologically links to the Californian Penutian, the South American Mochica, the Uru-Chipayan and the Mapuche languages with a lot of ethymologically changed words.

The Mayan-Macro name was formed by Lyle Campbell and Swadesh. Earlier is was called Mexican Penutian and Mayan.The Mexican Penutian expression was used by Frachtenberg in 1908, Sapir in 1926, Sapir-Swadesh in 1953 and Pierce in 1966.

It has got two main branches:

A. Mayan languages

B. Mixean - Zoquean languages

The classification of the Mayan languages:

I. HUASTECAN (WASTEC) BRANCH

1. Huastec (Ténec, Wastec)

+ 2. Chicomuceltec (Coxoh, Kabil

II. YUCATECAN BRANCH

3. Yucatec

4. Itza

5. Mopan

6. Lacandon

II. WESTERN BRANCH

A. TZELTAL GROUP

a. CHOL SUB-GROUP

7. Cholti

8. Ch’ol

9. Chontal

10.Ch’ortib.

TZELTAL SUB-GROUP

11. Tzotzil

12. Tzeltal

B. Q’ANJOBALAN GROUP

a. Q’ANJOBAL SUB-GROUP

13. Q’anjobal

14. Jacaltec

15. Popti

16. Motozintlec

17. Tuzantec (Muchu)

b. CHUJ SUB-GROUP

18. Chuj

19. Tojolabal

IV. EASTERN BRANCH

A.MAM GROUP

a. MAM SUB-GROUP

20. Teco

21. Mam

b. IXIL SUB-GROUP

22. Aguacatec

23. Ixil

 

 B. KICHE (QUICHE) GROUP

24. Uspantec

25. Q’eqchia.

KICHE (QUICHE) SUB-GROUP

26. Kiche (Quiche)

28. Sacapultec

29. Tz’utuhil

30. Kakchikel

b. POKOMAM SUB-GROUP

31. Pokomam

32. Pokomchi

33. Rabinal (Achi)

The common features of the Mayan languages: the most important word order is the VOS, but VSO can appear as well. They are agglutinative and polysynthetic languages.The word order of the Mayan languages is CVC, rarely CVCVC rooted. Other signs: CV:C or CV’C>CV:C.Cakchikel word order: VC,CV,CVC. Proto-Mayan word order: CVhCAccording to Kelley in 1976 and Campbell in 1979 the Mayan languages are hardlyconnected to the Penutian languages CVC rooted word order characters.

2. MIXEAN-ZOQUEAN LANGUAGES

The Mixean-Zoquean linguistic place is in South Mexico at the Tehuantepes isthmus, in the eastern part of Oaxaca state, it is West Chiapas and South Chiapas.The Proto-Mixean-Zoquean language was evolved in BC 2,000-BC 1,200. The Mayan Mixean and the Zoquean languages have divorced 4.000 years ago. Later there was another contact with the Cholan Mayan language.The linguistic reconstruction is connected to the name of Wichmann in 1995.

Proto-Mixean BC 400-BC 100 Proto Zoquean: BC 400-BC 200 . Population today: Mixean: 19,000 people, Zoquean: 80,000 people, Popoluca: 70,000 people.The Mixean-Zoquean languages are polysynthetic languages. According to Terence Kauffman and Lyle Campbell Olmec people spoke Proto-Mixean-Zoquean language.

The classification of Mixean-Zoquean languages: (Kauffmann and Justeson in 2000):

. MIXE GROUP

1. Tapachultec

2. Olutec

3. Mixe Proper

a. Sayultec

b. Lowland – Mixe

I. ZOQUE GROUP

A. GULF SUB-GROUP

4. Soteapan

5. Texistepec

6. Ayapanec

B. ZOQUE SUB-GROUP

7. Chiapas

8. Oaxaca

3.TOTONACAN / TEPEHUEAN LANGUAGE

The Totonacan /Tepehua languages are connected to the Mixean-Zoquean and the Mayanlanguages.Today the Totonacan language is spoken by 200,000 people in Mexico. The Tepehua(Tepewa) language is spoken by 10,000 people. In the Totonacan/Tepehuean languages the CVC and the CV(V)C word order is dominated. It is a polysynthetic language. The Proto-Totonacan and the Proto-Mixean-Zoquean languages are phonologically connected.