The Maya Developed The Only Complete Writing System In Mesoamerica

Linguists believe the Maya spoke a single language at first, which they named proto-Mayan. It is thought that Proto-Mayan was spoken at least 5,000 years ago. Proto-Mayan languages diverged during the Preclassic period (2000 BC-250 AD) to produce the primary Mayan language groups, which eventually diverged further to form over 30 languages that have persisted to present times and are now spoken by at least 6 million Maya people. The Maya civilization's writing system, known as the Maya script, is thought to be Mesoamerica's only comprehensive writing system, meaning they could write anything they could say. According to current research, the earliest Maya inscriptions discovered date from the 3rd century BCE. This would make the Maya the Mesoamerican inventors of writing. This would also make the Maya one of just three civilizations known to have invented writing independently of China and Mesopotamia.

Maya writing consisted of logograms supplemented with a set of syllabic symbols, which functioned similarly to current Japanese writing. Early European explorers in the 18th and 19th centuries dubbed Maya writing "hieroglyphics" or "hieroglyphs" because it resembled Egyptian hieroglyphs in appearance, despite the fact that the two systems are unrelated. Despite the fact that modern Mayan languages are nearly entirely written in Latin rather than Maya script, recent advancements have encouraged a resurgence of the Maya symbol system.