Tracing Language Through Time: Studying the Evolutionary History of the Mayan Languages

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The reconstruction of early vocabulary for flora and fauna allows for the insight into how these flora and fauna were used and thought of in ancient times. This paper analyses the semantic shift of 30 (thirty) early Mayan etyma (all listed in an appendix below), including etyma that are listed to have originated with Proto-Mayan, Central-Mayan, Eastern Mayan, and Western Mayan. This provides critical knowledge of the ecological knowledge of the Native Mayan population of the Maya region, in modern Central-America. This research contributes to larger conversations regarding linguistic anthropology and the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican worldview. </span>