612 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
sent out. In no better way can the various efforts of the early writers, nor the 
unity of the whole phenomenon, be correctly understood, than by placing these 
two series, the surd and the cut, together in pairs. We thus get the following 
Mayance general alphabet of vowels, semi-vowels, breathings, liquids, nasals, 
sibilants, and stops: a, ¢, 1, 0, u, y, @, Db, h, 7, ly 1; m, nN, Sy x3 Dy DP, ts, 25 BiG ee 
ch’, c, c’, k, k’. The bis placed as it 1s, because just as 71 passes insensibly from 
vowel through glide to consonant y, so does u pass through a glide and bilabial w 
to a closed D; all this is constantly apparent in the manuscripts in the use of 7 and 
y and of u, v, and b. Thej has the Spanish value or strong A value. This h appears 
barred, h, in the San Buenaventura Maya grammar, and as a tailed h in Quiché, 
being denoted by special type in each case. The x is of course our sh. As to the 
stop consonants we have: 
In Maya, p, pp (or a barred p), ¢, th, tz, 9 (turned c), ch, ch (barred), c, -,—-, k’; 
that is, the whole series except the next to last two, cut c’ and uncut k. 
In Quiché-Cakchiquel, by use of the Parra characters adapted from the manu- 
script forms for c and g, p, pp, t, tt, 8, g, (this is the cwatrillo with comma, for 
t), ch, gh (this 1s the cwatrillo with tailed h, for ch’), c, g, k, and €. Maldonado 
often uses a #t, which Flores calls geminated ¢, but rejects as “superfluous, since 
the sound of the doubled ¢ is the same as that of the simple.’ The early manu- 
scripts also use pp, obviously for the cut 7’. 
In Pokonchi-Pokoman-Kekchi we find only the #resillo €, evidently for the 
cut k’, though the writers knew of the Parra characters. In modern times Stoll 
found here the full series, except for p’ and ?’; and in the manuscripts it is possible 
that a distinction was felt between ch and ee and between z and t, both of which 
pairs are apparently confused in use—a question which only exhaustive studies 
resulting in definite sound mutation rules between the various Mayance stocks can 
decide correctly. 
In Mame we also find only the tresillo € used, which from Reynoso’s descrip- 
tion of it is clearly identifiable as k’. In Ixil, Stoll found the same series as in Pokom, 
lacking p’ and ?’, and the same remark will also apply here as above, for ch, Eh, 
z, and 8. 
For the Tzental group the difference of orthography impedes inferences; the 
writers make no mention of letras heridas, though the combinations ge and hgce, 
with Pineda’s descriptions, point to a like status with Pokom or Mame. The 
Berendt-Rockstroh word-list indicates clearly the presence of several others, and 
this is confirmed by a number of manuscript Chiapan word-lists in my possession. 
In our Cholti manuscript we find the same orthographic condition as in the 
Pokom and Mame, the € is used as a hard c or k, with considerable confusion, and 
with variations in the different hands, even in some Spanish words, as for example 
Como for como. This must represent the k’, while the use of ch, Eh, z, § may indi- 
cate ch’ and 8’, as above. We have no trace of a ?’, but we have the 9’ clearly 
indicated by such expressions as: “‘apretando los labios, pronunciado con fuerza.” 
In addition to this, my Salto de Agua Chol word-list gives words with ?’, 8, 
ch’, and k’, while the Rockstroh list affords 8’, ch’, and k’. 
We may quite safely credit the Quiché group with all six pairs complete, and 
the Pokom-Mame with all but 9’ and ?’, on the basis of Stoll’s modern field evidence 
and in spite of the lack of showing for it in the manuscripts. —The Maya has all but 
c and k; and finally, the balance of the evidence, I think, inclines to an identity 
here of Cholti with Maya, and not unlikely the Tzental group as well. 
Passing now to a consideration of Mayance grammar, we find to begin with 
a most striking parallel between Cholti and Maya. The basic line of division in 
all Mayance conjugation is that between the neuter verb, the absolute verb and 
the passive verb on the one hand, and the transitive verb on the other; the former 
