The Mayan Languages of Guatemala and Mexico Essay examples

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.

Also, children are afraid of the loss of privileges if they do not use the right “language” while around their parents. They develop different languages, and learn when and how to use them very well in order to make sure that they are always at an advantage. Anzaldua agrees, as she had about three different forms of Spanish that she would use while around her friends and family, compared to the other types of Spanish or English she would use while out in the real world (530). Gloria Anzaldua learned different types of Spanish, which she would use to speak to different people in her family. Some of these forms of Spanish were slang, and others were more formal and accepted types of Spanish. In order to avoid trouble, kids develop different ways to talk at home and use them to their advantage.

The Aztec and Maya were both American Indian people. The Aztec were ruled by a mighty empire in Mexico during the 1400's and early 1500's. The Maya however, developed a magnificent civilization in Central America and Southern Mexico. Both civilizations contributed a great deal to the modern world and invented items that are still used today.

What happened to the Mayan civilization before it mysteriously collapsed is still a mystery, but heart-stopping achievements were made. Throughout 3000 years the Native tribe of the Maya inhabited México, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras until the Spanish arrived. They were so secluded from anyone else, that they could not learn information from other tribes and they came up with all ideas themselves.(BGE) Trade routes, the creation of beautiful cities, establishing the number system and developing three calendars we all breathtaking achievements accomplished by the Mayan culture. Using scale, effort, genius, and significance four achievements will be argued about which was the most remarkable. Obviously the development

The ancient Mayan civilization settled in the Yucatan Peninsula in around 900 AD. This civilizations was one of the most advanced of its times. They created their own religion, language, mathematical structure, a very precise calendar, and many other things.

Although writing in the New World did not originate among the Maya, they gave writing its greatest refinements.(Miller)

The most remarkable achievement of the Maya is their number system. However from all of their achievements I feel the less but still important ones was the cities and buildings they built, their trade network, and their calendar.

Massive temples hidden in the jungles of the Yucatan, mysterious stone stelas, and cryptic calendars eluding to advanced knowledge of the stars and mathematics are just some of the artifacts originating from the “Classic Maya” period (200 CE-900 CE). However, these popular items should not be the only defining characteristics of a society that dominated the Mesoamerican region for nearly a millennia. Dynastic lines, similar to those found in European houses, were important elements during this period in places like Palenque, Tikal, and Calakmul. Additionally, the Maya experienced violent and consistent warfare between localized powers and the backbone of their society, agriculture, suffered through several multi-year droughts. These factors

Maya culture is one of the oldest and most intelligent tribal races. The flourishing period of Maya was between 300 and 900. The principal food in Maya was maize, which was also called “the maize culture”. They had no livestock such as sheep and horses. Also, they made the calendar and divided a year to 18 months. In addition, they built huge stone temples and held bloodletting ceremonies in order to sacrifice

Above the primary agriculturalists and soldiers were the skilled artisans, who functioned within Mayan society not only to produce functional

The deciphering of the Mayan hieroglyphics reveal a much more violent depiction of the mind people than scholars originally thought. This new light sure that the Mayans engaged not only in territorial wars blood rituals and sacrifices for religious practices. Their writings are a complex system that contain a certain type of fluidity between concepts, words, and sounds used together to express many elaborate ideas. This is all completed without the use of a definite alphabet. Scholars rely on context with the aid of elite software to interpret the Mayans content. The mayan wrote down much of the information in what is called codices, unfortunately the best majority of the handwritten ledgers were destroyed when the Catholic Spaniards ransacked

Mayan culture existed a thousand years ago, in what is now part of Central America. Its ruins were almost entirely abandoned by 600 A.D, and were not rediscovered until the early 1500’s, by Spanish settlers. Mayan architecture astounded the early conquistadors, and continues to be of great interest to modern archeologists as well. These scientists have labeled a certain period of Mayan architectural history as the “Classic” period.

Bloomfield's book An Introduction to the Study of Language in 1914 is considered as a remarkable and excellent work for a young man in his twentieth. He specialized his book to the study of the Algonquin languages, particularly to menomini, as his influential work Menomini Morphophonemic shows this. In addition, he included two chapters on language change, illustrated with examples from many languages. The book ended with a chapter on the relation of Linguistics to other sciences, a topic that would increasingly concern him.