A Comparative Study of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing and Japanese Orthography in Quiriguá Hieroglyphic Corpus (original) (raw)
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Recent years have seen rapid advancement in our understanding of the phonology and grammar of Classic Ch'olan and the distribution of Lowland Mayan languages in the Classic period. The control over the data has advanced to such an extent that Classic Ch'olan should no longer be considered chiefly a product of reconstruction, but rather a language in its own right, providing fresh input to historical reconstruction. The interpretation of writing system principles has moved into the forefront of research, and recent discussions of these and other major issues are summarized here. This review suggests that the exceptional phonological transparency of the Maya script, which is a precondition for the current advances in linguistic epigraphy, is rooted in the need of scribes to spell out regional linguistic variants, and a sociolinguistically oriented theory of the evolution of writing in general is formulated and tested on the Mayan hieroglyphic materials.
Anthropology 450-002: Introduction to Maya Writing
This course covers the basics of ancient Maya writing and art. It explores myths, history, and tales of life at the courts of lords and nobles, who wrote and spoke in “divine glyphs”. The course begins with an overview of Maya glyphs and its historical and cultural contexts. After a section on the fundamentals of the script, each week will combine a discussion of the grammar of Hieroglyphic Mayan with lectures on a range of topics from tags and texts on drinking cups to parallels between Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and present-day Maya literatures. The lectures will be accompanied by practical exercises and quizzes. The course does not require any prior knowledge of Mayan languages or glyphs. No training in drawing or epigraphy is necessary.
2014
This study investigates the orthography of Maya writing on an empirical and statistical basis. It restricts itself to the realisation of certain grammatical morphemes that are selected as representative showcases. Furthermore, the question of spelling alternations at the morphemic boundary between the root and grammatical suffix are investigated. The process of re-transferring the epigraphically attested grapheme string back into a phoneme string has proven to be an ambiguous process. A statistical assessment of the underlying representational rules for grammatical suffixes needs to consider both phonology and function. The epigraphic evidence is therefore first viewed against the linguistic data of relevant Mayan languages and before the background of historical linguistics. Based on previous epigraphic research, hypotheses can be formulated, how these grammatical forms can be represented in writing. With this knowledge, samples are gathered from the hieroglyphic corpus. These samples are subject to a three-tier analytical process: (1) linguistic analysis and attribution with analytical parameters in a data base, (2) significance tests for spelling patterns and other methods from quantitative linguistics, and (3) discussion of the test results against the linguistic hypotheses. The tests largely confirm specific orthographic rules in a variety of environments. The rules also provide an important contribution to the vocalisation of grammatical suffixes and therefore to the pronunciation of the Classic Mayan language. The specification of standard patterns also enables a better explanations of deviations. Thus, more light can be shed on a large range of aspects: (1) language genealogy and geography, (2) vernacular influences, (3) socio-linguistics, or (4) scribal schools, to name only a few. More confidence in a standardised Classic Mayan orthography also fosters increased trust in the vocalisation of the language and ultimately more confidence to more correctly read and interpret hieroglyphic texts. It is one step towards a consolidated grammar of Classic Mayan.
Classic Mayan: An overview of language in ancient hieroglyphic script
In: Aissen, Judith, Nora C. England and Roberto Zavala Maldonado (eds.) The Mayan Languages. Routledge Language Family Series. New York: Routledge. , 2017
This essay provides an overview of the language attested in ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing, or what we choose to call Classic Mayan.1 The writing system was in use for nearly two thousand years, beginning in what archaeologists call the Late Preclassic period (ca. 300 B.C.) and lasting until the time of European conquest and domination. In this period the hieroglyphic script was used throughout the region we traditionally know as the “Lowland Maya area,” concentrated mostly in the lowlands of what is today Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico (Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Chiapas, and Tabasco) and parts of western Honduras. Thousands of ancient texts survive on stone monuments, various portable objects such as ceramics, and in three (possibly four) screen-fold books dating to the later stages of the script’s history. These mostly record religious and historical information, although the styles and genres of such texts varied considerably over time and space. Remarkably, virtually all of the extant hieroglyphic texts seem to represent a single “prestige” language that, even at the time of its use, may have been highly formalized and even archaic in some of its features (Macri and Ford 1997; Houston et al. 2000). With the decipherment of the script in the 1980s and ’90s, specialists soon realized that many of the basic phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of this language are represented in great detail by the ancient writing system. These are now the subject of considerable study, debate, and discussion. However, as the following sections attest, in spite of a variety of confounding factors and interpretive obstacles, there is a great deal that we can say about the linguistics of ancient Maya writing
Anthropology 1168: Maya Glyphs
Learn to read and write in Maya glyphs to discover the most spectacular civilization in the Americas in its own words! This course covers the basics of Maya writing and art using the outstanding visual and material collections of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. It explores the indigenous Maya myths, histories, and stories of life at the ancient courts of lords and nobles. The course begins with an overview of Classic Maya writing and its historical and cultural contexts. After the introductory section on the fundamentals of Maya glyphs, each week will combine a discussion of the grammar of the Hieroglyphic Mayan with thematic lectures on a range of topics from tags and texts on drinking cups to parallels between Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and present-day Maya literatures. The lectures are accompanied by practical translation exercises and quizzes.
Summary of the First Seminar for the Study of Maya Writing
Latin American Research Review
TOPICS RELEVANT TO THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE MAYAN WRITING SYSTEM were discussed at the Primer Seminario para el Estudio de la Escritura Maya, held in Mexico City, December 4-10, 1966. This conference, attended by scholars from several nations (principally Mexico, Germany, and the United States), represents the first attempt to organize and coordinate the various groups and individuals involved in hieroglyph studies. The meetings, sponsored by the Mexican Comisi6n para el Estudio de la Escritura Maya (CEEM), were organized by Alberto Ruz, director of the Seminario de Cultura Maya of the Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, and Alfredo Barrera Vazquez, director of the Instituto Yucateco de Antropologia e Historia. The presentation of papers took place at the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (located in the new Museo de Antropologia) and at the Centro de Calculo Electr6nico of the Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico. Presiding over the meetings were two members of the CEEM, Leonardo Manrique C. and Daniel Cazes, A list of the contributions appears at the end of this report; the complete set of papers, together with critical commentary by the participants, will bepublished as Volume 7 of Estudios de Cultura Maya