Maya languages

or Mayan languages

Family of about 30 American Indian languages and language complexes, spoken by more than three million people, mainly in southern Mexico and Guatemala.

While some have few remaining speakers, Yucatec in Mexico and K'iche (Quiché), Kaqchikel (Cakchiquel), Mam, and Q'eqchi' (Kekchí) in Guatemala count speakers in the hundreds of thousands. Maya languages were recorded in an indigenous script (see Maya Codices; Mayan hieroglyphic writing), as well as in colonial documents in a Spanish-based orthography, including the Popol Vuh and the Yucatec prophetic texts known as the Books of Chilam Balam.

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▪ language

also called  Mayan languages 

      family of Mesoamerican Indian languages spoken in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize; Maya languages were also formerly spoken in western Honduras and western El Salvador.

      The family may be subdivided into the Huastec, Yucatec, Western Maya, and Eastern Maya groups. The most important Eastern Maya languages are Quiché (Quiché language) and Cakchiquel (Cakchiquel language); but there are also Mam, Teco, Aguacatec, Ixil, Uspantec, Sacapultec, Sipacapa, Pocomam, Pocomchí, and Kekchí. The largest Western Maya language is Tzeltal, spoken in Chiapas, Mexico, but other Western Maya languages include Chontal, Chol, Chortí, Tzotzil, Tojolabal, Chuj, Kanjobal, Acatec, Jacaltec, and Motozintlec. The Yucatec languages (Yucatec language), including Yucatec, Lacandón, Itzá, and Mopán, are sometimes also classed as Western Maya languages; Yucatec (Yucatec language), the most important, is spoken in Yucatán, northern Guatemala, and Belize. The Huastec group is composed of the Huastec and Chicomuceltec languages.

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