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Page 9 of the Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language
Page 9 of the Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language

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. (more...)

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Nahua woman from the Florentine Codex
Nahua woman from the Florentine Codex

Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan, or Nahuan, branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, all of which are indigenous to Mesoamerica and are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua people, mostly in Central Mexico. Nahuatl has been spoken in Central Mexico since at least the 7th century AD. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century it was the language of the Aztecs, who dominated central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology. The expansion and influence of the Aztec Empire led to the dialect spoken by the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan becoming a prestige language in Mesoamerica in this period. With the introduction of the Latin alphabet, Nahuatl also became a literary language and many chronicles, grammars, works of poetry, administrative documents and codices were written in the 16th and 17th centuries. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan dialect has been labeled Classical Nahuatl and is among the most-studied and best-documented languages of the Americas. Today, Nahuan dialects are spoken in scattered communities mostly in rural areas. There are considerable differences between dialects and some are mutually unintelligible. No modern dialects are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. (more...)

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Site of the destroyed Fort Rosalie

The Natchez revolt was an attack by the Natchez people on French colonists near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, on November 29, 1729. The Natchez and French had lived alongside each other in Louisiana for more than a decade. After a period of deteriorating relations, the Natchez were provoked to revolt when the French colonial commandant, Sieur de Chépart, demanded land from a tribal village near Fort Rosalie (pictured). They plotted an attack over several days and concealed their plans from most of the French. In an armed massacre on the fort and homesteads by the Mississippi River, they killed 230 of the 250 French colonists and burned the fort and homes to the ground. Upon hearing news of the revolt, French leaders in New Orleans feared a broader Native American uprising and ordered an attack on the Chaouacha people, who were not involved in the revolt. Over the next few weeks, French leaders sent two expeditions to besiege the Natchez and recover hostages. Most of the Natchez attackers escaped and sought refuge with other tribes, but their revolt had been a significant setback to the Louisiana colony, and the French retaliation led to the end of the Natchez as an independent people. (Full article...)

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Irataba, c.1864

Irataba (c. 1814 – 1874) was a leader of the Mohave Nation, known as an advocate for peace with whites and a mediator with the United States. He was a renowned orator and one of the first Mohave to speak English. He became the Mohave Nation's Aha macave yaltanack, an elected, as opposed to hereditary, leader. As a result of his many interactions with US officials and settlers, Irataba was invited to Washington, D.C., in 1864 for an official meeting with members of the US military and government, including President Abraham Lincoln. He was the first Native American from the Southwest to meet an American president. Upon his return he negotiated the creation of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, which caused a split in the Mohave Nation when he led several hundred of his supporters to the Colorado River valley. Some historians consider Irataba a great leader who championed peace, but others feel he could have done more to defend the Mohave way of life. In March 2015, Mohave Tribal chairman Dennis Patch credited Irataba with ensuring that "the Mohaves stayed on land they had lived on since time immemorial." (Full article...)



GA Reviews:

  1. Navajo language
  2. Czech language
  3. Turkish language
  4. Steven Pinker
  5. A Contract With God
  6. Tagalog language
  7. Quenya
  8. Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos
  9. Black Hawk War
  10. Central Morocco Tamazight
  11. Q'umarkaj
  12. National Treasures of Japan
  13. Battle of Ollantaytambo
  14. Oaxaca
  15. Che Guevara
  16. Grolier Codex
  17. Etymologiae
  18. Baron Munchausen
  19. Sanskrit
  20. Khmer language
  21. Linguistic Society of America
  22. Treaty of Waitangi
  23. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
  24. Botched reviews and quickfails: Phineas Gage, Charles Sanders Peirce, Ortrun Enderlein, Leo Frank

GAs written/curated:

  1. Greenlandic language
  2. Benjamin Lee Whorf
  3. Bartolome de las Casas
  4. Language
  5. English language
  6. Jean-François Champollion