LUDEMM
A2.
Researching
Tell Me a Story
07/05/15 #12 Italy
Primary Research
1The Maya hieroglypic writing is arguably one of the most visually striking writing
systems of the world. It is also very complex, with hundreds of unique signs
or glyphs in the form of humans, animals, supernaturals, objects, and abstract designs.
These signs are either logograms (to express meaning) or syllabograms (to denote
sound values), and are used to write words, phrases, and sentences. In fact, the Maya
can write anything that they can say.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/maya.html
The Mayan language family is a group of 69 related languages spoken by some 6
million people in Central America. These languages are thought to have originated
from a common ancestral language called Proto-Mayan which was spoken at least
5,000 years ago by inhabitants of the Mayan empire whose remains can be found
throughout much of Guatemala,Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and southern Mexico.
The empire flourished for many hundreds of years from 1,500 BC, but collapsed during
the period 800-900 AD.
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/mayan-language-family
The family may be subdivided into the Huastec, Yucatec, Western Maya, and Eastern
Maya groups. The most important Eastern Maya languages are Quiché and Cakchiquel;
but there are also Mam, Teco, Aguacatec, Ixil, Uspantec, Sacapultec, Sipacapa,
Pocomam, Pocomchí, and Kekchí. The largest Western Maya language is Tzeltal,
spoken in Chiapas, Mexico, but other Western Maya languages include Chontal, Chol,
Chortí, Tzotzil, Tojolabal, Chuj, Kanjobal, Acatec, Jacaltec, and Motozintlec.
http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/370823/Maya-languages
2Once considered an unsolvable enigma, recent advances in the decipherment of the
Maya writing system has not only shed light on the mechanics of the script, but also on
the socio-political, artistic, and historical aspects of Maya civilization.
As a whole, the Maya people created the longest lasting civilization of the New World.
It became distinguishable from other early farming cultures of Mesoamerica in the
middle of the first millenium BCE, when the first great Maya cities were constructed.
Their culture endured through changes, wars, and disasters until it was suppressed by
the Spanish conquest in the 16th and 17th centuries. The last indepedent Maya kingdom
of Tayasal, fell as late as 1697.
The order to read Maya glyphs is also not as straightforward as it would seem. Since
glyph blocks are arranged in a grid, one would think that the reading order is either in
rows or columns. In reality, Maya glyphs are read in "paired columns", meaning that the
first glyph block is on the top left, the second is immediately to the right of the first, the
third is under the first, the fourth under the second, and so forth.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/maya.html
3Ac:
Alic:
An:
Auat:
Baal:
Bak:
Balam:
Balché:
Be:
Bin:
Bolon:
Box:
Buul:
Ca:
Caan:
Cab:
Cah:
Can:
Cay:
Ch´o: ratón
http://10palabras.com/palabras-mayas/
4-
http://maya.nmai.si.edu/the-maya/maya-world
tortuga
decir
araña
gritar
animal
carne
tigre
animal
camino
ir
nueve
negro
frijol
dos
cielo
tierra
pueblo
serpiente
pez