Classic Maya language

During the Classic Period, the main branches of Proto-Mayan began to diversify into separate languages. The division between Proto-Yucatecan (in the north, the Yucatan Peninsula) and Proto-Cholan (in the south, the Chiapas highlands and the Petén Basin) had already occurred in the Classic, when most of the Mayan inscriptions existing were written. Both variants are attested in hieroglyphic inscriptions at Maya sites of the time, and both are commonly known as the "classical Mayan language".

Although a single prestigious language was by far the most frequently recorded in extant hieroglyphic texts, evidence of at least three different varieties of Maya has been discovered within the hieroglyphic corpus: an Eastern Ch'olan variety found in texts written in the southern Maya area and the highlands, a western Ch'olan variety spread from the Usumacinta region from the mid-7th century onwards, and a Yucatecan variety found in texts from the Yucatan Peninsula.[5] The reason that only a few linguistic varieties are found in the glyphic texts is probably that they served as prestigious dialects throughout the Maya region; hieroglyphic texts would have been written in the language of the elite.

Stephen Houston, John Robertson, and David Stuart have suggested that the specific variety of chʼolan found in most southern lowland glyphic texts was a language they called "classical chʼoltiʼ," the ancestor language of the Chʼortiʼ languages and modern chʼoltiʼ. They propose that it originated in the western and south-central basin of the Petén, and that it was used in inscriptions and perhaps also spoken by elites and priests. However, Mora-Marín has argued that the traits shared by the Classic Lowland Maya and Chʼoltian languages are retentions rather than innovations, and that the diversification of Chʼolan is indeed Post-Classical. The language of the classical lowland inscriptions would then have been Proto-Cholan.

It is now thought that the codices and other Classic texts were written by scribes, usually members of the Maya priesthood, in a literary form of the Chʼoltiʼ language.[6][7] It is possible that the Maya elite spoke this language as a lingua franca over the entire Maya-speaking area, but also that texts were written in other Mayan languages of the Petén and Yucatán, especially Yucatec. There is also some evidence that the Maya script may have been occasionally used to write Mayan languages of the Guatemalan Highlands.[7] However, if other languages were written, they may have been written by Chʼoltiʼ scribes, and therefore have Chʼoltiʼ elements.

Classic Maya is the principal language documented in the writing system used by the pre-Columbian Maya, and is particularly represented in inscriptions from the lowland regions in Mexico and the period c. 200—900. The writing system (generally known as the Maya script) has some similarities in function (but is not related) to other logosyllabic writing systems such as the cuneiform originating in Sumer, in which a combination of logographic and syllabic signs (graphemes) are used. The script's corpus of graphemes features a core of syllabic signs which reflect the phonology of the Classic Maya language spoken in the region and at that time, which were also combined or complemented by a larger number of logograms. Thus the expressions of Classic Maya could be written in a variety of ways, represented either as logograms, logograms with phonetic complements, logograms plus syllables, or in a purely syllabic combination. For example, in one common pattern many verb and noun roots are given by logographs, while their grammatical affixes were written syllabically, much like the Japanese writing system.

The classical Maya consonant system can be represented as follows:[8][9]

The Latin alphabet of the classical Maya transliteration is: ’, a, b, ch, ch’, e, h, i, k, k’ (ꜭ), l, m, n, o, p, p’, s, t, t’, tz, tz’ (ꜯ), u, w, x, y.

In Classic Maya, there are five vowels: a, e, i, o, u. Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu. Furthermore, no word begins with a vowel; these actually begin with a glottal stop.[9] Because of this, the initial letter ’ is often omitted to facilitate transcription and alphabetic structuring.

The most widespread phonological process attested in Maya glyphs is the elimination of the underlying vowels in a trisyllabic word. When a sequence of the form CVCVCVC appears as a single word, the second vowel (the nucleus of the second syllable) is elided to form two CVC syllables. Examples: CHUM(mu)-la-ja 'he sits' is transcribed chumlaj. AJAW-le-le 'lordship' is transliterated ajawlel. Tu-’u-B’AAH 'in itself' is transcribed tu’b’aah. Sa-ku-WINIK-ki 'elder brother' is transliterated saku(n) winik.

Like most other Mayan languages, Classic Maya is verb–subject–object and is an ergative–absolutive language. Being polysynthetic, it uses both prefixes and suffixes to show grammatical function. Nouns are not inflected for case or gender. There is also an entire class of intransitives that convey the object's spatial position. In addition, the language employs counter words when quantifying nouns and uses a vigesimal number system. Verbs are not conjugated according to tense, but rather are semantically altered by a series of aspect particles.

Maya literature is among the oldest in the world, spanning two millennia from pre-Columbian antiquity to the present.[11] The Maya used to draw and write on some surfaces that were not intended to be a means of graphic expression. The most abundant preserved works of this type are found within rooms of buildings whose ceilings and walls are preserved. The only place where significant effort has been made to document writing on surfaces is Tikal, Guatemala.[12]

From the period of classical Mayan writing, which lasted from the 3rd century BC until the 13th century, the texts that have survived to the present day were painted or carved in stones, bones, resistant wood, ceramics, shells or stucco. It is possible that much more had also been written on paper, but what little has come to this day is illegible. In places dating from the Classic Period, remains of books have been found in tombs, which would have been placed in chests or next to the heads of their deceased owners. There are only four still readable books that have survived to the present time.[12]