Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs - Wayeb

Kettunen & Helmke 2011
Appendices
APPENDIX I: SYNHARMONIC VS. DISHARMONIC SPELLING, UNDERSPELLED SOUNDS, AND
RECONSTRUCTED GLOTTAL FRICATIVES IN MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING
The following is primarily based on the foundation work done by Houston, Robertson, and Stuart (1998, 2000),
Lacadena and Wichmann (2004), and Lacadena and Zender (2001). All possible misinterpretations are ours, not
theirs.
EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS:
C
V
ABS
ERG
consonant
vowel
absolutive
ergative
Since the pivotal study of phoneticism in Maya hieroglyphic writing by Knorozov (1952) until the latter part of
1990’s, the existence of disharmony (disharmonic spelling arrangements) in the Maya script was noticed but left
more or less as an open question. In 1980’s, the issue was taken under scrutiny by linguists, and some promising
results were achieved.
However, no overall satisfying pattern was found to explain all the arrangements until late 1990’s and during the
past few years. In 1998 Houston, Robertson and Stuart proposed that the disharmonic spellings in the Maya script
indicate the presence of preconsonantal glottal fricatives (/h/) as well as complex vowels including: long vowels
(VV), glottal stops (’), glottalized vowels (V’) and rearticulated glottalized vowels (V’V).
In their original proposal, Houston, Stuart, and Robertson (1998) suggested that there is no distinction made
between vowel length, glottalization, and preconsonantal /h/ by means of disharmonic spellings, and that the
existence of these three phonemic features are to be reconstructed historically:
CV1C / CV1-CV1 >
CV1C / CV1-CV2 >
CV1C
CVVC
CV’C
CVhC
+ historical reconstruction
A later modification by Lacadena and Wichmann (2004) pointed toward an interpretation that complex vowels
(complex syllable nuclei) “were distinguished from short vowels in the script [… and] that vowel length and
glottal stops were clearly distinguished from one another in the orthography”. Lacadena and Wichmann (2004:
103) also proposed that “neither disharmonic nor harmonic spellings indicate a preconsonantal /h/”. While the
preconsonantal /h/ existed in Classic Maya (e.g. as a necessary and integral part of passive verbal constructions,
see below), in the process of decipherment it must be reconstructed on the basis of historical linguistics.
The rules governing harmonic and disharmonic spelling arrangements as modified by Lacadena and Wichmann
(2004) are as follows:
CV1C / CV1-CV1 > CV1C
CV1C / CV1-CV2 > CVVC (V1 = a, e, o, u; V2 = i)
CV1C / CV1-CV2 > CVVC (V1 = i; V2 = a)
CV1C / CV1-CV2 > CV’(V)C (V1 = e, o, u; V2 = a)
CV1C / CV1-CV2 > CV’(V)C (V1 = a, i; V2 = u)
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