Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs - Wayeb

Kettunen & Helmke 2011
Concise Glyph Dictionary
CONCISE CLASSIC MAYA – ENGLISH DICTIONARY
hieroglyph 72 : transliteration 73 : transcription 74 : translation 75 : alternative spellings 76 :
a/AJ
a
aj
(1) phonetic sign
(2) neutral or male prefix 77
ACH?
AT?
ach
at / aat
(1) penis ACH?-cha,
AT?-ti,
AT?-ta
AHIN? / AYIN? ahiin / ayiin (1) caiman (n)
(2) lizard (n)
a-AYIN/AHIN-na,
AYIN/AHIN-na,
AYIN/AHIN-ni
AJAW 78
ajaw
ajaaw?
(1) lord (n)
(2) king (n)
AJAW-wa,
a-AJAW,
a-AJAW-wa,
a-ja-wa
AJAW
ajaw
ajaaw?
(1) lord (n)
(2) king (n)
AJAW-wa,
a-AJAW,
a-AJAW-wa,
a-ja-wa
AJAW
ajaw
ajaaw?
(1) lord (n)
(2) king (n)
AJAW-wa,
a-AJAW,
a-AJAW-wa,
a-ja-wa
72
A given sign represented in this column is only one possible version of different spellings to be found in the Maya hieroglyphic corpus. For
example the word for “lord” or ajaw can be rendered in the following ways: AJAW, a-AJAW, AJAW-wa, a-AJAW-wa, and a-ja-wa. Use of
different graphic forms, furthermore yields dozens of possible combinations, each representing distinct collocations (see alternative spellings in
the rightmost column and see also chapter 7. Logograms]). The arrangement of this dictionary is based on alphabetical order of transcriptions.
When a particular hieroglyph is usually or always preceded with a possessive pronoun u-/y-, it is placed in parentheses: e.g. (y-)uk’ib . The
alphabetical order thus follows the stem of the word rather than the most common (inflected or derived) appearance in the corpus.
73
This is a broad transliteration that excludes analyzed/interpreted sounds (vowel length, glottal stops, and /h/’s [preconsonantal velar fricatives])
that are not inbuilt/inherent parts of hieroglyphs but were, conversely, indicated by orthography rules, grammatical inflection, and in the case of
underspellings, provided by the native reader [see page 63 onwards]).
74
This is a narrow transcription including reconstructed sounds (marked by [square brackets]) based either on historical, internal, or paleographic
evidence.
75
This is really a gloss rather than translation (a gloss is a short general translation of a word or morpheme which does not take into account the
context in which it occurs). Nonetheless, when several well-attested meanings exist, these are sorted (in the order of numerical ascendancy) from
the most literal to the most figurative. The latter do (to a certain degree) take into consideration the various meaning that the contexts of
wordscan potentially imbue them with. Abbreviations of grammatical category follow the expression in (parentheses): adj: adjective, adv: adverb,
cn: composite noun, cop: copula, dem: demonstrative pronoun, ip: independent pronoun, iv: intransitive verb, ivd: intransitive verb (derived), n:
noun, ncl: numeral classifier, num: numeral, part: particle, poss: possessive prefix, prep: preposition, prpo: pronominal (absolutive) postfix, prpr:
pronominal (ergative) prefix, pv: positional verb, sp: stative participles, top: toponym, tv: transitive verb, tvd: transitive verb (derived).
76
The alternative spellings are based on Boot 2009, Lacadena and Wichmann 2004, Lacadena and Zender 2001, and Lacadena (personal
communication, 2003).
77
A prefix, proclitic, or classificator denoting person, agent, doer, office, causer, characteristics, or male sex.
78
See page 15 for different variations of the ajaw sign.
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