Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
Encyclopedia
The Mesoamerican Linguistic Area is a sprachbund
containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica
. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethnolinguistic traits found in the languages of Mesoamerica
, which belong to a number of language families, such as Uto-Aztecan, Mayan
, Totonacan
, Oto-Manguean
and Mixe–Zoquean languages as well as some language isolate
s and unclassified languages known to the region.
, Terrence Kaufman and Thomas Smith-Stark employed a rigid linguistic analysis which demonstrated that the similarities between a number of languages were indeed considerable, with the conclusion that their origins were very likely caused by diffusion rather than inheritance - the standard criteria for defining a sprachbund.
In their 1986 paper "Meso-America as a Linguistic Area" the above-mentioned authors explored several proposed areal features of which they discarded most as being weakly attested, possibly due to chance or inheritance or not confined to the Mesoamerican region. However, five traits in particular were shown to be widely-attested among the languages, with boundaries coinciding with that of the Mesoamerican region and having a probable origin through diffusion. They then compared these five traits with the traits defining other linguistic areas considered to be well-established –for example, the East Asian Sprachbund and Balkan linguistic union
– and they concluded that by comparison the proposed Mesoamerican Linguistic Area could indeed be considered a well-founded area: arguably "among the very strongest that are known" (Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark. 1986 p. 556).
They also argued that some of the discarded traits might also be taken into consideration as strengthening the proposal but that they were not sufficient by themselves to act as foundation and other well documented traits of a more ethnolinguistic character might not be considerable as truly linguistic traits but rather cultural.
For example in K'iche'
(Mayan
) u-tzi' le achih "the man's dog" literally meaning "his-dog the man". The similar construction in Náhuatl would be i:-itzkwin in tla:katl.
s. Relational nouns are used to express spatial and other relations, much like prepositions in most Indo-European languages
but composed of a noun and possessive affixes.
is a special word order found in wh-questions. It appears to be found in all Mesoamerican languages, but is rare outside Mesoamerica.
, or base twenty numeral systems. This system has also spread to some languages just outside the Mesoamerican cultural area.
are attested in Mesoamerica, but this is supposed by Campbell, Kaufman and Smith-Stark to be a secondary effect of the Mesoamerican languages not being verb final.
For example in many Mesoamerican languages the words for specific objects are constructed by compounding two different stems, and in many cases these two stems are semantically identical although linguistically unrelated.
Among these calques are:
Sprachbund
A Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethnolinguistic traits found in the languages of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican languages
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and...
, which belong to a number of language families, such as Uto-Aztecan, Mayan
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
, Totonacan
Totonacan languages
The Totonacan languages are a family of closely related languages spoken by approximately 200,000 Totonac and Tepehua people in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo in Mexico...
, Oto-Manguean
Oto-Manguean languages
Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...
and Mixe–Zoquean languages as well as some language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
s and unclassified languages known to the region.
History of Mesoamerican areal linguistics
The similarities noted between many of the languages of Mesoamerica have led linguistic scholars to propose the constitution of a sprachbund, from as early as 1959. The proposal was not consolidated until 1986 however, when Lyle CampbellLyle Campbell
Lyle Richard Campbell is a linguist and leading expert on indigenous American languages—especially those of Mesoamerica—and on historical linguistics in general. He also has expertise in Uralic languages. He is presently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.-Life and...
, Terrence Kaufman and Thomas Smith-Stark employed a rigid linguistic analysis which demonstrated that the similarities between a number of languages were indeed considerable, with the conclusion that their origins were very likely caused by diffusion rather than inheritance - the standard criteria for defining a sprachbund.
In their 1986 paper "Meso-America as a Linguistic Area" the above-mentioned authors explored several proposed areal features of which they discarded most as being weakly attested, possibly due to chance or inheritance or not confined to the Mesoamerican region. However, five traits in particular were shown to be widely-attested among the languages, with boundaries coinciding with that of the Mesoamerican region and having a probable origin through diffusion. They then compared these five traits with the traits defining other linguistic areas considered to be well-established –for example, the East Asian Sprachbund and Balkan linguistic union
Balkan linguistic union
The Balkan sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of areal features—similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology—among the languages of the Balkans. Several features are found across these languages though not all need apply to every single language...
– and they concluded that by comparison the proposed Mesoamerican Linguistic Area could indeed be considered a well-founded area: arguably "among the very strongest that are known" (Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark. 1986 p. 556).
They also argued that some of the discarded traits might also be taken into consideration as strengthening the proposal but that they were not sufficient by themselves to act as foundation and other well documented traits of a more ethnolinguistic character might not be considerable as truly linguistic traits but rather cultural.
Traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
The following is a brief description of the linguistic traits considered by Campbell, Kaufman and Smith-Stark as defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.Nominal possession
Many of the Mesoamerican languages show a particular kind of construction for possession of nominals. The commonly found construction is "his noun1 noun2" meaning "noun2's noun1".For example in K'iche'
K'iche' language
The K’iche’ language is a part of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by many K'iche' people in the central highlands of Guatemala. With close to a million speakers , it is the second-most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish...
(Mayan
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
) u-tzi' le achih "the man's dog" literally meaning "his-dog the man". The similar construction in Náhuatl would be i:-itzkwin in tla:katl.
Relational nouns
Another trait shared by nearly all Mesoamerican languages is relational nounRelational noun
Relational nouns or relator nouns are a class of words used in many languages. They are characterized as functioning syntactically as nouns, although they convey the meaning for which other languages use adpositions...
s. Relational nouns are used to express spatial and other relations, much like prepositions in most Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
but composed of a noun and possessive affixes.
- For example in PipilPipil languagePipil is a Uto-Aztecan language descended from Nahuatl which was spoken in several parts of present day Central America before the Spanish conquest. It is on the verge of extinction in western El Salvador and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America...
(Uto-Aztecan):
- nu-wa:n "with me" (nu- means "my")
- mu-wa:n "with you" (mu- means "yours")
- i-wa:n "with her" (i- means "his/her/its")
- Or in MamMam languageMam is a Mayan language with almost 480,000 speakers as of 2002, spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango and San Marcos....
(Mayan): - n-wits-a "on me" (n- means "my")
- t-wits "on her" (t- means "his/her/its").
Pied-piping with inversion
Pied-piping with inversionPied-piping with inversion
Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, for example, languages in the Mesoamerican linguistic area.-Introduction:...
is a special word order found in wh-questions. It appears to be found in all Mesoamerican languages, but is rare outside Mesoamerica.
Vigesimal numeral system
All the languages of Mesoamerica have vigesimalVigesimal
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
, or base twenty numeral systems. This system has also spread to some languages just outside the Mesoamerican cultural area.
Non-verb-final syntax and absence of switch-reference
No language with verb-final basic word order is attested in Mesoamerica even though most of the languages bordering on Mesoamerica are verb final (SOV). Also no languages with switch referenceSwitch reference
In linguistics, switch-reference describes any clause-level morpheme that signals whether certain prominent arguments in 'adjacent' clauses co-refer...
are attested in Mesoamerica, but this is supposed by Campbell, Kaufman and Smith-Stark to be a secondary effect of the Mesoamerican languages not being verb final.
Widespread semantic calques
A strong evidence of diffusion throughout Mesoamerica is provided by a number of semantic calques widely found throughout the area.For example in many Mesoamerican languages the words for specific objects are constructed by compounding two different stems, and in many cases these two stems are semantically identical although linguistically unrelated.
Among these calques are:
- leg-head meaning "knee"
- deer-snake meaning "boa constrictor"
- stone-ash meaning "limestone"
- hand-neck meaning "wrist"
- bird-stone meaning "egg"
- blood-road meaning "vein"
- grind-stone meaning "molar"
- mouth meaning "edge"
- god-excrement or sun-excrement meaning "precious metal"
- hand-mother meaning "thumb"
- water-mountain meaning "town"
Other traits
Other traits found in Mesoamerican languages, but not found by Campbell, Kaufman and Smith-Stark to be prominent enough to be conclusive for the proposal of the Linguistic Area are:- Use of incorporation of bodypart nouns into verbs.
- Derivation of locatives through bodypart nouns.
- The existence of whistled languageWhistled languageWhistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over long distances...
s - Grammatical indication of intimate or inalienable possessionInalienable possessionIn linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the fact that they are always possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand...
- The existence of numeral classifiers
- Grammaticalised polite forms for second person addressees.
- A special ritual language register.