The Maya Alphabet

Today is:

Long Count:  12.19.19.1.15

Calendar Round:  4 Men 3 Pax

With 324 days until Baktun 13

In keeping in with the spirit the countdown to Baktun 13 here's a little post on the Maya alphabet.  Although the Maya weren't the only people who had writing in the pre-contact period, as writing appears to stretch all the way back to the mother culture later known as Olmec,  the Maya script was be far the most fully developed, considered so because all the earlier scripts were not put on almost anything, and the Maya put writing on almost everything.   The Maya script was not fully deciphered until well into the 20th century, having had been lost to the Maya themselves during the Spanish conquest of Maya territory in the 16th century.

Upon (almost) complete decipherment, the alphabet was discovered to be at least partically syllabaric in nature; meaning that some of the symbols stand for syllables instead of individual letters as in the Roman alphabet that I am writing in right now.  A nice chart demonstrating the syllabaric nature of the alphabet can be found here.  And just for the heck of it, here is a complete list of writing types, including list of all complete or partial syllabary alphabets.

Here is a really nice further reading piece courtesy, via the web, of our great neighbors to the north:  Canada.  Finally, there is a dictionary of Maya hieroglyphs that is really well put together for easy reference.