Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico. An example of text in a Mesoamerican language written in an indigenous Mesoamerican writing system.
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.[1][2] The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and seven major language families. Mesoamerica is also an area of high linguistic diffusion in that long-term interaction among speakers of different languages through several millennia has resulted in the convergence of certain linguistic traits across disparate language families. The Mesoamerican sprachbund is commonly referred to as the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.
The languages of Mesoamerica were also among the first to evolve independent traditions of writing. The oldest texts date to approximately 1000 BCE (namely olmec and zapotec), though most texts in the indigenous scripts (such as Maya) date to c. 600–900 CE. Following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, and continuing up until the 19th century, most Mesoamerican languages were written in Latin script.
The languages of Mesoamerica belong to 6 major families – Mayan, Oto-Mangue, Mixe–Zoque, Totonacan, Uto-Aztecan and Chibchan languages (only on the southern border of the area) – as well as a few smaller families and isolates – Purépecha, Huave, Tequistlatec, Xincan and Lencan. Among these Oto-Manguean and Mayan families account for the largest numbers of speakers by far – each having speakers numbering more than a million. Many Mesoamerican languages today are either endangered or already extinct, but others, including the Mayan languages, Nahuatl, Mixtec and Zapotec, have several hundred thousand speakers and remain viable.
^"Mesoamerica".
^"Mesoamerica an introduction".
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Mesoamericanlanguages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador...
The Mesoamericanlanguage area is a sprachbund containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is...
Qanjobalan, Mamean and Chʼolan–Tzeltalan branches. Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamericanlanguage area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout...
the languages of the area. These surviving texts give anthropologists and historians valuable insight into the origins of Mesoamericanlanguages, culture...
alongside other indigenous Mesoamericanlanguages, they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of the Mesoamericanlanguage area. Many words from...
speak their ancestral languages and maintain many practices hearkening back to their Mesoamerican roots. Ancient Mesoamerican sites in El Salvador Holy...
traditions of indigenous Mesoamerican literature extend back to the oldest-attested forms of early writing in the Mesoamerican region, which date from...
artworks The Olmecs (/ˈɒlmɛks, ˈoʊl-/) were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they...
resources in and about the Lenca language Audio Recording of an Elicitation and Wordlist in Lenca from the MesoAmericanLanguages Collection of Lyle Campbell...
Sinca, or Szinca) is a small extinct family of Mesoamericanlanguages, formerly regarded as a single language isolate, once spoken by the indigenous Xinca...
belonged as well. Corachol languages are Mesoamericanlanguages, and display many of the traits defined by the Mesoamerican linguistic area, or sprachbund...
is a Mesoamericanlanguage and has many of the traits of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In 2003, along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it was...
which ruled China from 9–23 AD Xincan languages (ISO 639: xin), a small extinct family of Mesoamericanlanguages Xin (surname), Chinese surname Empress...
/ˈzæpətɛk/ languages are a group of around 50 closely related indigenous Mesoamericanlanguages that constitute a main branch of the Oto-Manguean language family...
share numerous areal features with other languages of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, such as the Mayan languages and Nahuatl. Recent work suggests a possible...
name. As a result, the word for “day” also means “name” in some Mesoamericanlanguages. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations...
The Misumalpan languages (also Misumalpa or Misuluan) are a small family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples on the east coast of Nicaragua and nearby...
variety of Chibchan languages has been identified. A larger family called Macro-Chibchan, which would contain the Misumalpan languages, Xinca, and Lenca...
Colorado in the United States. Cora is a Mesoamericanlanguage and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area[citation needed]. Under...
Proto-Uto-Aztecan. Chumashan languages Penutian languages Dixon, Roland R.; Kroeber, Alfred L. (1913a). "Relationship of the Indian languages of California." Science...
The Kaqchikel language (in modern orthography; formerly also spelled Cakchiquel or Cachiquel) is an indigenous Mesoamericanlanguage and a member of the...
Other languages have terms similar to score, such as Danish and Norwegian snes. In regions where greater aspects of the Brythonic Celtic languages have...
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