MAYA HIEROGLYPHS — WHORF 485 



value, are not the evidence for the phonetic values, and their being 

 proved wrong would not invalidate the latter nor alter the readings ; 

 but would merely mean that the origin of the sign was other than 1 

 have supposed. There are several signs for which I am unable to 

 offer any explanation (e.g., No. 16), yet for which the phonetic value 

 is reasonably certain. I did not guess the probable object source of 

 No. 6 until after 1 had known its phonetic value for several years. 



The extreme right-hand column shows the Maya word, as given in 

 the Motul dictionary,^ for the thing or condition postulated as the 

 object source. It will be observed that the initial sound of this Maya 

 name of the object (i. e., the first consonant and/or the first con- 

 sonant and vowel) is the sound which the sign represents in writing, 

 as shown in the left-hand column, except in the case of No. 1, in 

 which the initial h is either lost or transposed, yielding a or ah. The 

 Spanish entry under the English name of the object source is the 

 way in which the Motul dictionary defines the Maya word in the 

 extreme right-hand column. 



Figure 1 then should be self-explanatory. The following supple- 

 mentary remarks may be added: No. 1 does not occur initially in a 

 word. Primary word-initial h in Maya, in becoming secondarily 

 word-internal, as when it begins the second member of a compound 

 word, tends to be weakened or lost. This explains why a syllable 

 originally denoting ha would denote a when used only to write non- 

 initial fractions of words. No. 6 is especially interesting. Maya has 

 simple, unanalyzable words for "write" or "book," not connected 

 with "paint" or "draw" as in Aztec and many other American 

 languages. This fact, ceteris paribus, argues for the greater 

 antiquity of writing in the Maya culture than in these other cultures. 

 Maya missives and books (e. g., the codices) were written on an 

 elongated strip of tissue which was then folded up, and when tied 

 or clasped would have an appearance not unlike a modem letter 



»The Motul dictionary is an anonymous sixteenth-century work ascribed to Fray 

 Antonio de Ciudad Real, and is the most voluminous and authentic source of information 

 upon the Maya language at the time of the Conquest. Actually it is not only a dictionary 

 but a grammar and a chrestomathy as well, for most of the word citations are accom- 

 panied by copious examples of phrases and sentences. The technique of stem-composition In 

 Maya of this period is beautifully brought out in these examples ; the same is true of 

 syntax. The Maya words in fig. 1 are not cited in the conventional Maya orthography 

 used in the Motul dictionary, but in the phonetic alphabet used by most present-day lin- 

 guists for American Indian languages (the revised American Anthropological Association 

 system), except that c is used instead of c for the alveolar affricate (a sound like ts). 

 The cedilla has been added to the c to avoid confusion with the o of Maya orthography 

 which represents fc. The symbol No. 22 is cited by Landa with the value c; it is unques- 

 tionable that he meant Spanish f or the soft sound of c, as in the name of the letter "ce," 

 which is very likely what he asked his Maya informant to write. This soft sound of c 

 was close to ts in old Spanish, which is why it was equated to the Maya sign for ts. No. 22. 

 The sounds 6 and s are English ch and sh, k' is a glottalized fc; the language has a series 

 of such glottalized sounds : p', t', &, 6', fc'. Through some curious omission, the Motul 

 dictionary does not actually cite the word ne, "tail," but this is. of course, a well-known 

 Maya word. 



