Editing Maya script (section)

== Languages ==
Evidence suggests that codices and other classic texts were written by [[scribe]]s—usually members of the [[Maya priesthood]]—in [[Classic Maya language|Classic Maya]], a literary form of the extinct [[Chʼoltiʼ language]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Houston |first1=Stephen D. |author-link1=Stephen D. Houston | first2=John |last2=Robertson |author-link3=David Stuart (Mayanist) |first3=David |last3=Stuart |year=2000 |title=The Language of Classic Maya Inscriptions |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=321–356 |issn=0011-3204 |doi=10.1086/300142 |pmid=10768879|s2cid=741601 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kettunen|Helmke|2020|p=13}}  It is possible that the Maya elite spoke this language as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' over the entire Maya-speaking area, but texts were also written in other [[Mayan languages]] of the [[Petén Basin|Petén]] and [[Yucatán Peninsula|Yucatán]], especially [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec]]. There is also some evidence that the script may have been occasionally used to write Mayan languages of the [[Guatemalan Highlands]].{{sfn|Kettunen|Helmke|2020|p=13}} However, if other languages were written, they may have been written by Chʼoltiʼ scribes, and therefore have Chʼoltiʼ elements.