History of proposals
McQuown (1942, 1956) defined Macro-Mayan as the hypothetical ancestor of Mayan, Mije-Sokean, and Totonacan, further promoting the hypothesis. However, his hypothesis relied on the presence of "a glottalized series" of consonants in both Mayan and Totonakan. Such a trait could have potentially spread through contact. McQuown also admitted that “the relatively small number of coincidences in vocabulary indicates to us that this kinship is quite distant” (McQuown 1942:37-38). The hypothesis was not elaborated until 1979 when Brown and Witkowski put forth a proposal with 62 cognate sets and supposed sound correspondences between the two families. They also published two articles proposing a "Mesoamerican Phylum" composed of Macro-Mayan and other language families of Mesoamerica. This proposal was examined closely byRelated proposals
Stark (1972) proposed a Maya–Yunga–Chipayan macrofamily linking Mayan with the Chimuan and Uru–Chipaya language families of South America.See also
* Totozoquean languages *References
*Brown, Cecil H., and Stanley R. Witkowski. (1979). Aspects of the Phonological History of Mayan-Zoquean. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 45:34-47. *Brown, Cecil H., David Beck, Grzegorz Kondrak, James K. Watters, and Søren Wichmann. (2011). Totozoquean. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 77: 323–372. * *Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman. (1976). A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs. ''American Antiquity'' 41:80-89. *Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman. (1980). On Mesoamerican Linguistics. ''American Anthropologist'' 82:850-857. *Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman. (1983). Mesoamerican Historical Linguistics and Distant Genetic Relationship: Getting It Straight. ''American Anthropologist'' 85:362-372. *McQuown, Norman A. (1942). Una posible sintesis lingüística Macro-Mayance, Mayas y Olmecas 2.37-8 (Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Reunión de Mesa Redonda sobre Problemas Antropológicos de México y Centro América; México, 1942). *McQuown, Norman A. (1956). Evidence for a Synthetic Trend in Totonacan. ''Language''32:78-80. *Mora-Marín, David (2014). The Proto-Maya-Mijesokean Hypothesis: Change and Transformation in Approaches to An Old Problem. In ''Climates of Change: The Shifting Environment of Archaeology'', edited by Sheila Kulyk, Cara G. Tremain, and Madeleine Sawyer, pp. 213–225. Proceedings of the 44thAnnual Chacmool Conference. Calgary: Chacmool Archaeological Association, University of Calgary. *Mora-Marín, David (2016). Testing the Proto-Mayan-Mijesokean Hypothesis. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 82:125-180. *Radin, Paul. (1916). On the relationship of Huave and Mixe. American Anthropologist 18:411-421. *Radin, Paul. (1919). ''The genetic relationship of the North American Indian languages'', 489-502. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. Berkeley: University of California. *Radin, Paul. (1924). The relationship of Maya to Zoque-Huave. ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris''16:317-324. *Squier, E. G. (1861). Monograph of Authors who have Written on the Languages of Central America. Albany, New York. {{North American languages Proposed language families