Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs - Wayeb

Kettunen & Helmke 2011
Glossary of Linguistic Terminology
voiced
A sound that is produced with a vibration of the vocal folds (vocal cords).
vowel
One of the two significant classes of sounds (besides CONSONANTS). Vowels are usually pronounced with
relatively open configuration of the vocal tract without noticeable obstruction to the free flow of air through the
mouth. In contrast to consonants, vowels can form syllables by themselves. There are five vowels (or ten if long
vowels are regarded as a distinct set of vowels) in the Classic Maya language: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/.
word
The smallest unit of GRAMMAR which can stand alone as a complete utterance in both spoken and written
language. Words are composed of STEMS together with optional AFFIXES.
zero morpheme
A zero morpheme (Ø) is a constituent representing an element at an abstract level but not realized in the
utterance (i.e. it has no phonetic appearance in pronunciation nor a graphemic appearance in writing). A zero
morpheme thus represents the absence of an expected morpheme. There are a number of zero morphemes in the
Classic Maya language (and, consequently, also in the script). One of the most common is that of the third person
singular absolutive (Set B) pronoun, as in the phrase chumlaj (“he/she sat down”) which can be divided into
morphemes in the following way: chum-l-aj-Ø (verbal root + marker of a positional verb + thematic suffix + third
person absolutive pronoun).
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