Mayan languages are 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, and Belize. The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 5000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method. Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. During the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages were written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. Its use was particularly widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization. The surviving corpus of over 10,000 known individual Maya inscriptions on buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper codices, combined with the rich postcolonial literature in Mayan languages written in the Latin alphabet, provides a basis for the modern understanding of pre-Columbian history unparalleled in the Americas.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1674: John III Sobieski, elected by the szlachta, became the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Sobieski)

1879: War of the Pacific: Two Peruvian ironclads attempted to lift the blockade of Iquique by Chilean battleships in the Battle of Iquique. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iquique)

1894: The Manchester Ship Canal was officially opened, linking the city of Manchester to the Irish Sea. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal)

1927: Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh)

1998: Indonesian President Suharto resigned, ending a 32-year reign. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Life — a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter. -- Charles Lindbergh (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh)