484 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



himttr ScuTid Symbol 

 ha, g^j!irg > 



2 b \£°) 



hovi 



hu, hw 



Probable Ma,« Name 



Object -5eurce ofObjett-Sccnre 

 scraper- haob 



Cepi/lo.o quatc)Uier- 

 inslmmcpto ftQra rospor' 



perforations ^'S 



'pc<^gcSoi ogujereados' 



poi-nts, dots e 



opentrnj, dooi- 08 



Q kak 



ka 



10 kc 



bid 

 uu 



«. ka ^Ul;' 



Cfoce of) chief 



letter, book 

 'carta oil bro' 



■nipples (o^arijnoO 

 tcta d© 'mojer* y 

 de c|uolt)uier oniTnol' 



ahaw 



huun 



kat 



Tlo. 8 C-nlarged o-nd 

 doubled (?) 



I<d tied on k'al 



'cerra*- con Cerradurvx 

 obr-ochoT; at^'ancaT"' 



J] IfUTIJ 



f eother" 

 'plumo de ove ' 



KuKVih 



Nen.b<T5Q„nd 



U l.le 



13 I. Je 



14 l,lu lo 



SjfTnbol Proboble tAaya Nome 



Object-ScuTce of ObjectSouTe 



\Q/ W Q loop, -noose jg 



' laz.o poT-a cozor' 



double loop 



(No I?- doubled) 



le 



W<Jrinking-cup(«.loop) luf 

 'vaso para. bebeT" •" 



egmsp o-f the ha-nd tno? 

 ' asii-, tomor con (as 

 woTios, c empufloT- ' 



17, 



ri, -on 



lU 



Ig s. sa 



SI to.tu 

 23 U 



tall 

 'cola 



woven work in loom snkal 

 'teU G-n el teloT-' 



stretched strings sin 

 estender panos o cueros, 'stretch 



coljor eslewdiendo, or-trmq' 



carmar lazos* 



^f- 



Figure 1. — Examples of Maya symbols having phonetic values. 



betic order the fraction of utterance, i. e., sound which regularly ^ 

 corresponds to the appearance of the sign in a written form. The 

 next column to the right shows the usual appearance of the written 

 sign, with common variants added in some cases. The list includes 

 less than a third of all the signs the phonetic values of which I con- 

 sider fairly well established. The column headed "Probable Object- 

 Source" names the thing or condition of which the written sign was 

 probably at one time a picture. However, these theories as to pic- 

 torial origins, while they seem probable and have a substantiating 



* Regularly but not always in the case of all these signs, for polyphony is a prevalent 

 trait in Maya writing, as it is also in Sumerian and Akkadian (Babylonian) cuneiform. 

 That is, various signs are polyphones, with two or more contrasting sets of sound values, 

 besides the slightly differing values within a set, such as either ha or h with vowel lacking 

 or indefinite, which slight differences are on another level than the polyphonic contrasts. 

 The native reader, able to grasp words as wholes, is not confused by these polyphonic 

 values ; he knows from the other signs assembled with the one in question just which of 

 the polyphonic values applies in a given case, just as the reader of English is not confused 

 by the o in women or the olo in colonel, but is governed by the total collocation so that he 

 reacts with fractions of utterance entirely unlike those regularly associated with the 

 written forms o and olo. Polyphony is therefore the same type of thing as irregular spell- 

 ing under an alphabetic system of writing. Thus the Maya sign No. 5 of figure 1 has also 

 the value la, I, as in the writing of the word lak'in, lik'in "east" ; this value may very 

 likely derive from the word lalail "the largest, greatest, principal, chief" — -a near-synonym 

 of ahaw. Sign No. 15 occasionally has the value i, as in the writing of dik'in "west" ; 

 this value probably derives from 6uk "catch or seize with the hand," a near-synonym of 

 mod. 



