DAY SYMBOLS OF THE MAYA YEAR 
By Cyrus THOMAS 
INTRODUCTORY 
As the origin and signification of the day and month names of the 
Maya calendar, and of the symbols used to represent these time periods, 
are now being discussed by students of Mexican and Central American 
paleography, I deem it advisable to present the result of my investiga- 
tions in this line. The present paper, however, will be limited to the 
days only, as I have but little to add in regard to the month names or 
symbols. Asthe conclusion reached by Drs Seler and Brinton in regard 
to the order and sequence of the days of the month in the different 
calendars appears to be satisfactorily established, it will be accepted. 
As frequent allusion is made herein to the phoneticism or phonetic 
value of the written characters or hieroglyphs, it is proper that the 
writer’s position on this point should be clearly understood. He does 
not claim that the Maya scribes had reached that advanced stage where 
they could indicate each letter-sound by a glyph or symbol. On the 
contrary, he thinks a symbol, probably derived in most cases from an 
older method of picture writing, was selected because the name or word 
itrepresented had as its chief phonetic element a certain consonant sound 
or syllable. If this consonant element were b, the symbol would be used 
where bwas the prominent consonant element of the word to beindicated, 
no reference, however, to its original signification being necessarily 
retained. Thus the symbol for cab, “earth,” might be used in writing 
Caban, a day name, or cabil, “honey,” because cab is their chief phonetic 
element. 
In a previous work! I have expressed the opinion that the characters 
are to a certain extent phonetic—are not true alphabetic signs, but syl- 
labic. And at the same time I expressed the opinion that even this 
definition did not hold true of all, as some were apparently ideographic, 
while others were simple abbreviated pictorial representations. In a 
subsequent paper’ I expressed substantially the same opinion, and 
gave as my belief that one reason why attempts at decipherment have 
failed of success is a misconception of the peculiar character of the 
writing, which peculiarity is found in the fact that, as it exists in the 
codices and inscriptions, it is in a transition stage from the purely ideo- 
graphic to the phonetic. I stated also my belief that the writing had not 
reached the stage when each sound was indicated by a glyph or sign. 

1Study of the Manuscript Troano, pref., p. viii. 
2 American Anthropologist, Washington, July, 1893. 
