407CHAPTER 11 LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES OF MESOAMERICA
Modern Mesoamerica is an area of great linguistic diversity. Although Spanish is the
dominant language of the region, about 100 Native American languages are still spo-
ken within its borders, and English is the official language of Belize. The study of these
languages has provided a great deal of information about the cultures, histories, and
relationships among Mesoamerican peoples. The native languages of Mesoamerica
also share certain linguistic properties that distinguish them from languages to the
north and south, and help define one part of what it is to be Mesoamerican.THE DIVERSITY OF MESOAMERICAN LANGUAGES
The indigenous languages of Mesoamerica are listed in Figure 11.1. Any such list is
to some extent subjective. Two different types of speech are considered to be the
same language if speakers of one type understand speakers of the other; the two
types of speech are mutually intelligibledialects of a single language. If speakers of the
two types of speech cannot understand one another, the two languages are consid-
ered to be distinct languages. These are the clearcut cases.
The subjective element enters when people understand one another partially.
People with different purposes make systematically different judgments. For exam-
ple, missionaries may want to provide everyone with a Bible that they can read and
understand; different languages or dialects can be defined by whether their speak-
ers understand a single translation of the Bible well enough. For anthropologists, it
may be more important to know the extent to which people in contact—for exam-
ple, in markets—can make themselves understood while using their own language.
The list given in Figure 11.1 reflects this general type of perspective.
The languages given in Figure 11.1 are classified,or grouped into language fam-
ilies.A language family is a grouping of languages based upon their degree of mu-
tual relationship. The type of relationship involved is historical (descent from a
common ancestor) and involves the idea of language change.Unit 4: MESOAMERICANCULTURALFEATURES