MAYA HIEROGLYPHS — ^WHORF 



487 



Figure 2 shows the writing of six words occurring in the codices.^ 

 The sign chisters or glyphs of various animals, originally detennined 

 by Schellhas from their concurrence with pictures, have long been 

 known.* No. 1 is cited by Schellhas as the glyph meaning snake. 

 It will be noted that it consists of No. 8 of figure 1, ha^ and No. 17, 

 n, and a third symbol. This third symbol and the iguana figure in 

 the next glyph of figure 2 are the only symbols cited in this paper 

 which are not found in figure 1. The first two symbols spell han^ 

 which is the Maya word for snake. The third symbol is probably 



1. 



Ua- 



lake 



ka-n 



kcin 



hu 



|QU«77 a 



hu 



TiaTne of a moritlr^ 



ku TM - h( 



"statLed^ speared 



/ (I I' J 



/ e Tioose , <x-n<i 



catch K-n TioosQ-vro.p' 



les iTi a n \a.'icVi 



m st-rwng Tioose-trap " 



I u-Trn-Tna-T) 



'signo de CGceT-i''a 

 p o-r -med \o de 

 flecnet y la-n-z.a " 



(e - e or 1- e 



5IPTIO de CQceYi''a 



po->' 



±ra 



sm "arwar- lazos" 



FiGUBE 2. — Maya sign clusters representing words. 



derived from a picture of a rattlesnake's rattles, intended to evoke 

 the linguistic response "snake," i. e., han^ and has itself the value han. 

 However, it is apparently insufficient by itself to write the word han. 

 It was not unusual in the Maya system to write a word of one syllable 

 simply by one sign having the value of that syllable, probably be- 

 cause that sign often was polyphonic, having other values. Instead, 

 the Maya method was to suggest the syllable by a combination of 

 signs that was probably, to Maya speakers acquainted with the con- 

 ventions of the writing, unambiguous. This combination of signs 



s In an unpublished paper read before the annual meeting of the American Anthropolo.sri- 

 cal Association at Washington, D. C, in December 1936, entitled "A Comparative De- 

 cipherment of Forty-Six Maya Written Words," I exhibited 46 word-writings similarly 

 analyzed, including hu and kumhu of the present six. 



•Paul Scbellbas, GSttergestalten der Mayahandschriften, 1897. 



