Classic Maya language: Encyclopedia - Classic Maya language

Classic Maya language

The Classic Maya language is the oldest historically attested member of the Maya language family. It is the main language documented in the Pre-Columbian inscriptions of the Classic Era Maya civilization.

Classic Maya language - Relationships

Classic Maya is split into at least two dialects, Ch'olan and Yucatecan. These dialects eventually evolved into the contemporary up into the Chol language and the Yucatec Maya language. Modern Ch'ol and Yucatec speakers can understand many words in Classic Maya.

Classic Maya language - Writing System

Classic Maya is written in a descendant of Olmec script, and is one of only a handful of original writing systems. The Classic Maya script is similar to Ancient Egyptian in the way it functions. The script is basically syllabic, but a large number of logographs exist, and many verb and noun roots are given by logographs. Grammatical affixes are usually written syllabically.

Classic Maya language - Classification

Like the other Maya languages, Classic Maya is VSO and ergative in its basic typology. It uses both prefixes and suffixes to show grammatical function.

Categories: Mayan languages | Languages of Mexico | Languages of Guatemala | Indigenous languages of Mesoamerica

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Classic Maya language", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki