Module 5: The Mayan Language

When I originally was introduced to this history of the Mayan civilization I almost couldn’t believe they truly existed. It seemed so interesting it was as if it came straight from a movie. Many people today believe that the Mayan civilization began in the Yucatan area of what is now Mexico. This settling supposedly occurred sometime around 2600 BC and 1800 BC. This culture lasted through many wars and disaster all the way up until the 16th and 17th centuries. The Mayan empire that majority of people recognize it by, arrived between 250AD and 900 AD. This includes the development of large structures and foundations of different cities. During this period the Mayans have advanced in many ways. For example, they have built large temples, established a calendar, and most importantly they had created a writing system.

The decipherment of this language was started by a European named Constantine Rafinesque who could crack the Mayan counting system. A single dot represented one while a bar represented five. The Mayans even had a concept of the number zero. A very long time had passed in which case those who studied their writing believed that it did not represent a language at all or that it was ever completed. In the 1930s, an expert in glyph studies named Eric Thompson had deciphered many signs related to the calendar. The only mistake being he firmly believed that the symbol each stood for an entire word or idea. Even more interesting, the researchers believed that the markings had no phonetic value. It wasn’t until the 1950s when Yuri Valentinovich proposed that the markings were partially phonetic, therefore representing sounds in the Yucatec Mayan language.

After increasingly more decryption of the Mayan Language Tatiana Proskouriakoff effectively proved that the series of stelae in front of a temple represented kings and the history of their life from birth to death. By 1981, at the age of 15, David Stuart had found out that individual Maya words had multiple possibilities of writing. This means that glyphs could be drawn in different ways. Today, many people are attempting to revive the ancient language. Since majority of the glyphs can now be read, the Maya people are relearning their ancestral language.

There are many different features to the writing system that I find to be truly fascinating. The Mayan script is logosyllabic combining around 550 logograms that represent words and around 150 syllabograms that represent syllables. These symbols were carved into stone, written on bark, wood, jade, ceramics, and even manuscripts. Another interesting fact is that the script was most frequently written in paired vertical columns read from left to right and top to bottom like a zigzag.

Additional Information:

http://www.ancientscripts.com/maya.html

References

Carrasco, D. (2000). City of sacrifice: the Aztec empire and the role of violence in civilization. Boston: Beacon Press.

Webster, D. L. (2002). The fall of the ancient Maya: solving the mystery of the Maya collapse. London: Thames & Hudson.

Coe, Mayan Civilization. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.aztec-history.com/mayan-civilization.html M. D. (2005). The Maya. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Cracking the Maya Code. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/time-nf.html