Editing Mayan languages (section)

==History==

===Proto-Mayan===
[[File:Mayan Language Migration Map.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.63|Approximate migration routes and dates for various Mayan language families. The region shown as Proto-Mayan is now occupied by speakers of the Qʼanjobalan branch (light blue in other figures).<ref group=notes>Based on Kaufman (1976).</ref>]]
Mayan languages are the descendants of a [[proto-language]] called Proto-Mayan or, in Kʼicheʼ Maya, ''Nabʼee Mayaʼ Tzij'' ("the old Maya Language").{{sfn|England|1994}} The Proto-Mayan language is believed to have been spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of central Guatemala in an area corresponding roughly to where Qʼanjobalan is spoken today.{{sfn|Campbell|1997|p=165}} The earliest proposal which identified the Chiapas-Guatemalan highlands as the likely "cradle" of Mayan languages was published by the German antiquarian and scholar [[Karl Sapper]] in 1912.<ref group=notes>see attribution in {{harvtxt|Fernández de Miranda|1968|p=75}}</ref> [[Terrence Kaufman]] and John Justeson have reconstructed more than 3000 lexical items for the proto-Mayan language.{{sfn|Kaufman| with Justeson|2003}}

According to the prevailing classification scheme by [[Lyle Campbell]] and Terrence Kaufman, the first division occurred around 2200 BCE, when Huastecan split away from Mayan proper after its speakers moved northwest along the [[Gulf Coast of Mexico]].{{sfn|Campbell|Kaufman|1985}} Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Chʼolan speakers subsequently split off from the main group and moved north into the [[Yucatán Peninsula]]. Speakers of the western branch moved south into the areas now inhabited by Mamean and Quichean people. When speakers of proto-Tzeltalan later separated from the Chʼolan group and moved south into the [[Chiapas Highlands]], they came into contact with speakers of [[Mixe–Zoque languages]].{{sfn|Kaufman|1976}} According to an alternative theory by Robertson and [[Stephen D. Houston|Houston]], Huastecan stayed in the Guatemalan highlands with speakers of Chʼolan–Tzeltalan, separating from that branch at a much later date than proposed by Kaufman.{{sfn|Robertson|Houston|2002}}

In the Archaic period (before 2000 BCE), a number of [[loanword]]s from Mixe–Zoquean languages seem to have entered the proto-Mayan language. This has led to hypotheses that the early Maya were dominated by speakers of Mixe–Zoquean languages, possibly the [[Olmec]].<ref group=notes>This theory was first proposed by {{harvcoltxt|Campbell|Kaufman|1976}}</ref> In the case of the [[Xincan language|Xincan]] and [[Lencan languages]], on the other hand, Mayan languages are more often the source than the receiver of loanwords. Mayan language specialists such as Campbell believe this suggests a period of intense contact between Maya and the [[Lenca people|Lencan]] and [[Xinca people]], possibly during the Classic period (250–900).<ref name="Campbell 1997, p.165" />

===Classic period===
[[File:Palenque glyphs-edit1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.81|Classic period Maya glyphs in stucco at the ''Museo de sitio'' in [[Palenque]], Mexico]]
During the Classic period the major branches began diversifying into separate languages. The split between Proto-Yucatecan (in the north, that is, the Yucatán Peninsula) and Proto-Chʼolan (in the south, that is, the Chiapas highlands and [[Petén Basin]]) had already occurred by the Classic period, when most extant [[#Glyphic writing|Maya inscriptions]] were written. Both variants are attested in hieroglyphic inscriptions at the [[List of Maya sites|Maya sites]] of the time, and both are commonly referred to as "[[Classic Maya language]]". Although a single prestige language was by far the most frequently recorded on extant hieroglyphic texts, evidence for at least three different varieties of Mayan have been discovered within the hieroglyphic corpus—an Eastern Chʼolan variety found in texts written in the southern Maya area and the highlands, a Western Chʼolan variety diffused from the Usumacinta region from the mid-7th century on,{{sfn|Hruby|Child|2004}} and a Yucatecan variety found in the texts from the Yucatán Peninsula.<ref name="Kettunen & Helmke 2020 p. 13">{{harvtxt|Kettunen|Helmke|2020|p=13}}</ref> The reason why only few linguistic varieties are found in the glyphic texts is probably that these served as [[prestige dialect]]s throughout the Maya region; hieroglyphic texts would have been composed in the language of the elite.<ref name="Kettunen & Helmke 2020 p. 13" />

Stephen Houston, John Robertson and David Stuart have suggested that the specific variety of Chʼolan found in the majority of Southern Lowland glyphic texts was a language they dub "Classic Chʼoltiʼan", the ancestor language of the modern [[Chʼortiʼ language|Chʼortiʼ]] and [[Chʼoltiʼ language]]s. They propose that it originated in western and south-central Petén Basin, and that it was used in the inscriptions and perhaps also spoken by elites and priests.{{sfn|Houston|Robertson|Stuart|2000}} However, Mora-Marín has argued that traits shared by Classic Lowland Maya and the Chʼoltiʼan languages are retentions rather than innovations, and that the diversification of Chʼolan in fact post-dates the classic period. The language of the classical lowland inscriptions then would have been proto-Chʼolan.{{sfn|Mora-Marín|2009}}

===Colonial period===
During the Spanish colonization of Central America, all [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|indigenous]] languages were eclipsed by [[Spanish language|Spanish]], which became the new prestige language.  The use of Mayan languages came to an end in many important domains of society, including administration, religion and literature. Yet the Maya area was more resistant to outside influence than others,<ref group=notes>The last independent Maya kingdom ([[Tayasal]]) was not conquered until 1697, some 170 years after the first ''[[conquistador]]es'' arrived. During the Colonial and Postcolonial periods, Maya peoples periodically rebelled against the colonizers, such as the [[Caste War of Yucatán]], which extended into the 20th century.</ref> and perhaps for this reason, many Maya communities still retain a high proportion of [[monolingual]] speakers.  The Maya area is now dominated by the Spanish language. While a number of Mayan languages are [[moribund language|moribund]] or are considered [[endangered language|endangered]], others remain quite viable, with speakers across all age groups and native language use in all domains of society.<ref group=notes>Grenoble & Whaley (1998) characterized the situation this way: "Mayan languages typically have several hundreds of thousands of speakers, and a majority of Mayas speak a Mayan language as a first language. The driving concern of Maya communities is not to revitalize their language but to buttress it against the increasingly rapid spread of Spanish ... [rather than being] at the end of a process of language shift, [Mayan languages are] ... at the beginning."{{harvtxt|Grenoble|Whaley|1998|pages=xi–xii}}</ref>

===Modern period===
[[File:Idioma Chuj.JPG|right|thumb|Drawing with text written in the [[Chuj language]] from Ixcán, Guatemala.]]
As Maya archaeology advanced during the 20th century and [[nationalist]] and ethnic-pride-based ideologies spread, the Mayan-speaking peoples began to develop a shared [[ethnic]] identity as Maya, the heirs of the [[Maya civilization]].<ref group=notes>{{harvtxt|Choi|2002}} writes: "In the recent Maya cultural activism, maintenance of Mayan languages has been promoted in an attempt to support 'unified Maya identity'. However, there is a complex array of perceptions about Mayan language and identity among Maya who I researched in Momostenango, a highland Maya community in Guatemala. On the one hand, Maya denigrate Kʼicheʼ and have doubts about its potential to continue as a viable language because the command of Spanish is an economic and political necessity. On the other hand, they do recognize the value of Mayan language when they wish to claim the 'authentic Maya identity'. It is this conflation of conflicting and ambivalent ideologies that inform language choice..."</ref>

The word "Maya" was likely derived from the postclassical Yucatán city of [[Mayapan]]; its more restricted meaning in pre-colonial and colonial times points to an origin in a particular region of the Yucatán Peninsula. The broader meaning of "Maya" now current, while defined by linguistic relationships, is also used to refer to ethnic or cultural traits. Most Maya identify first and foremost with a particular ethnic group, e.g. as "Yucatec" or "Kʼicheʼ"; but they also recognize a shared Maya kinship.{{sfn|Choi|2002}}  Language has been fundamental in defining the boundaries of that kinship. Fabri writes: "The term Maya is problematic because Maya peoples do not constitute a homogeneous identity. Maya, rather, has become a strategy of self-representation for the Maya movements and its followers. The Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) finds twenty-one distinct Mayan languages."{{sfn|Fabri|2003|page=61. n1}}  This pride in unity has led to an insistence on the distinctions of different Mayan languages, some of which are so closely related that they could easily be referred to as [[dialects]] of a single language. But, given that the term "dialect" has been used by some with [[Racism|racialist]] overtones in the past, as scholars made a spurious distinction between Amerindian "dialects" and European "languages", the preferred usage in Mesoamerica in recent years has been to designate the linguistic varieties spoken by different ethnic group as separate languages.<ref group=notes>See {{harvtxt|Suárez|1983}} chapter 2 for a thorough discussion of the usage and meanings of the words "dialect" and "language" in Mesoamerica.</ref>

In Guatemala, matters such as developing standardized orthographies for the Mayan languages are governed by the [[Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala]] (ALMG; Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages), which was founded by Maya organisations in 1986. Following the 1996 [[Guatemalan Civil War|peace accords]], it has been gaining a growing recognition as the regulatory authority on Mayan languages both among Mayan scholars and the Maya peoples.<ref name=French>{{harvtxt|French|2003}}</ref><ref name=England2007>{{harvtxt|England|2007|pages=14, 93}}</ref>