Talk:Mesoamerican languages

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Oto-Manguean, Mixe-Zoque speaker figures need to be updated.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kwamikagami (talk • contribs) 18 September 2005.

I edited the page to make a distinction between mesoamerican languages as a language spoken within mesoamerica and mesoamerican language as a language showing traits that makes it classifiable as a member of the mesoamerican sprachbund or linguistic area. I created a page called Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, that should be started. To those that are uncertain about the implications of linguistic area: the reasons of defining mesoamerica as a cultural area is the high level of similarities in culture, architecture etc. which are the resulst of shared developments and influences between the peoples in the mesoamerican geographical area. This interaction and shared developments also affected (some of)the lanmguages that spoke in the area an cause genetically unrelated languages to develop grammatical similarities. The languages that can be seen to show some or most of these shared traits are also called Mesoamerican Languages.--Someoneelse 20:51, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] pronunciation?(the stuf in square brackets)

Could someone tell me what is the stuff in square brackets? Pronunciation? Whose pronunciation? It is definitley not the native pronunciation since most of the names are not used by the speakers of the languages themselves at all. It also doesnt seem to be the normal english or spanish pronunciation of the words. And the phonetic alphabet is very weird, isn't IPA the standard here? If nobody explains I will strike them all from the list.--Maunus 22:05, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mesoamerican Linguistic Area

Since this article notes the distinction between Mesoamerican languages (indigenous langs of the geographical area) and the mesoamerican linguistic area (ie the langs which share the characteristics defining the sprachbund), it would be useful to identify which of the mesoamerican languages listed here do not form part of the MLA. Maunus, are you able to make a start?--cjllw | TALK 23:25, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

It is not so simple since most languags have some of the traits that are associated with the sprachbund and none of the languages have all of them. But I have had a mind to workon this aricle a bit, I will see what I can do.Maunus 07:42, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

This paragraph that Maunus moved here is poorly written and contains some doubt information or assertions. It says:

The cultural area that encompasses Mesoamerica is home to more than one hundred different modern language groups. At the time of the conquest (1521-1697), the number of languages was close to 150. Each group of people wrote in the language they spoke. This would have created mass confusion in the understanding of the written word, even at the time of the con-quest, if it were not for certain unifying traits within the written word itself.

Throughout Mesoamerica the use of writing was utilized for a wide variety of social and societal necessities. Records were kept of business transactions, genealogies, and dynastic lists. Prose and poetry were also part of the written record. And soon after the conquest, transcription of oral histories took place when Spanish priests and monks interviewed the indigenous peoples. Entire libraries were said to exist at the time of the conquest in the capitals of the Aztecs and the Quiché-Maya, and many books existed throughout the region in the hands of local communities and sometimes lords.Even before the conquest began in earnest in 1521, indigenous books and manuscripts were being sent back to Europe. However, beginning with the Night of the Long Knives, in which the Spaniards burnt the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán to the ground, and continuing until the last books of the Itzá Maya were removed from Tayasal in 1697. (Paul Baumann)[1]

I doubt very much that people wrote in *all* of the putative 150 languages (where did that number come from?) The sentence beginning "This would have created mass confusion" makes no sense at all to me. The last sentence ("However, beginning with the Night..") is a fragment. A number of other infelicities are there. I don't know enough to fix it authoritatively, but it should be fixed. --Lavintzin 04:37, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. I was storing it here untill I could do something about it. If you just remove the "infelicities" for now it would be great.(they certainly didn't write in all languages) The idea I think is to provide an historical background for the linguistic interaction in mesoamerica which i think is a good idea - but this section does need to be tweaked. ·Maunus· tlahtōlli 08:07, 21 January 2007 (UTC)