Transcriber's Note

A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version of this book. They are marked and the corrected text is shown in the popup. A description of the errors is found in the list at the end of the text.

THE Ancient Phonetic Alphabet OF YUCATAN.

By D. G. BRINTON, M. D.

New York: J. SABIN & SONS, No. 84 NASSAU STREET. 1870.

THE Ancient Phonetic Alphabet OF YUCATAN.

Most readers are quite familiar with the fact that a well-developed method of picture writing, or "didactic painting," as it has been appropriately named, prevailed through Mexico and Central America for centuries before the conquest. But that, in the latter country, there was a true phonetic alphabet, is one of the more recent discoveries of American archæology, and certainly one of the most interesting, as it promises to restore to us the records of the most cultivated nation of ancient America for a number of centuries previous to the advent of the white man.

It is well-known that the forests of Yucatan conceal the ruins of cities and palaces built of stones covered with inscribed characters. All travelers who had seen these characters were convinced that they were intended to perpetuate ideas, but the key seemed to be irrevocably lost. Fortunately, within the last few years (to be exact, in December, 1863), a diligent antiquarian, the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, unearthed in a library in Madrid—that of the Royal Academy of History—a copy of an unpublished description of Yucatan composed by Diego de Landa, the first bishop of the country. In this was contained the phonetic alphabet employed by the aboriginal Mayas, with a tolerably full, but an intolerably obscure, explanation of their mode of using it. As De Landa's words are so important, and also not a little difficult to comprehend, we cannot do better than transcribe them exactly as they appear in the copy of his work published at Paris, in 1864.

He premises his remarks by saying that the natives used certain characters or letters with which they wrote in books their ancient histories and sciences, and by means of these letters, and figures, and certain signs in the figures, they could understand and teach from these manuscripts. The missionaries found very many of them, all of which, the good bishop informs us, proved on examination to contain more lies and superstitions, and were consequently burned, which pained the natives in the most marvelous manner (lo qual a maravilla sentian, y les dava pena).

He then continues:—

"De sus letras porné aqui un a, b, c, que no permite su pesadumbre mas, porque usan para todas las aspiraciones de las letras de un caracter, y despues, al puntar de las partes otro, y assi viene a hazer in infinitum, como se podra ver en el siguiente exemplo. Lé quière dezir laço y caçar con el; para escrivirle con sus caracteres, haviendolos nosotros hecho entender que son dos letras, lo escrivian ellos con tres, poniendo a la aspiracion de la l la vocal é, que antes de si trae, y en esto no hierran, aunque usense, si quisieron ellos de su curiosidad. Exemplo:—

Dèspues al cabo le pegan la parte junta. Ha que quiere dezir agua, porque la haché tiene a, h, antes de si la ponen ellos al principio con a, y al cabo desta manera:—

Tambien lo escriben a partes, pero de la una y otra manera, yo no pusiera aqui ni trétara dello sino por dar cuenta entera de las cosas desta gente. Ma in kati quiere decir no quiero, ellos lo escriben a partes desta manera:—

This is all on the subject the bishop vouchsafes us. Let us now attempt a free translation of his words, premising that they are so obscure in parts, and the composition so careless and provincial, that we shall not take it at all amiss if any reader thinks he can improve our rendering:

"Of their letters, I shall place here an A, B, C, their clumsiness not allowing more; for they employ one character for all the aspirations of the letters, and another to denote their repetitions, and so they go on in infinitum, as one may see in the following example: Le means a lasso and to hunt with one. In order to write with their characters, although we told them it contains but two letters, they make use of three, giving to the aspiration of the l the vowel é, which is before it, and in this they are not in error, if they wish to write it in their curious manner. Example:

e l e lé

Afterwards they put at the end the part which is joined. Again in ha, which means water, because the letter h contains the sounds a, h, they place the a both at the beginning and at the end, in this manner:—

a h a

They can write it either with separate letters or united together. I would not have inserted nor have mentioned this but that I wished to give a complete description of this people. Ma in kati means I do not wish; they write it in separate letters in this way:—

ma i n ka ti ."

From these valuable though too scanty hints we learn that the letters were employed connected together in a manner somewhat analogous to, though more intimately than our cursive shrift, and also separately, as in the Roman alphabet. When the latter was the case, they were repeated apparently in their connected form. Further, the vowel sound which is necessarily associated with the enunciation of every consonant (la aspiracion), and which in the Maya language of Yucatan is so pronounced as to have been called by the Abbé de Bourbourg, "une certaine affectation gutturale," was taken account of, and expressed in writing. Then there were a number of arbitrary signs, figures, and symbols, with syllabic values, as we see in the last example given. These peculiarities, of course, make the system clumsy, but are by no means insurmountable difficulties in the way of elucidating it.

Immediately at the close of the foregoing extract Bishop Landa gives the alphabet subjoined, which has been carefully copied on wood, by Mr. Edward Bensell, of Philadelphia, the arrangement of the letters being slightly altered:—

Besides these elementary sounds, he gives twenty arbitrary signs, one for each day of the Maya month, which signs seem also to be used at their syllabic value in writing words. All of them have the same peculiar rounded or circular form which is observable in most of the letters, and which has induced some writers to call this the "Calculiform" alphabet.

But returning to the A, B, C, let us inquire the meanings of the figures adopted. Knowing these, we shall be in better position to recognise their variations on existing inscriptions and manuscripts—for these, as we expect, are considerable; but not more so, perhaps, than the variations in the forms of the Roman letters.

a. Nos. 1, 2, and 4, are representations of the heads of some animals, No. 2 being evidently the head of a bird with a long curved beak, probably a species of parrot. No. 3 has been supposed to represent a leg or a boot of some kind, but is probably also a rude figure of a head, (See Plate XXXVI. of the manuscrit Troano.)

b. Both these letters are supposed to represent a path or way bearing the marks of foot prints, indicated by the small figures inside the circle.

c. This letter should probably be pronounced ka (a as in mate), and is imagined to represent a mouth displaying sharp teeth.

ca. This sign is explained as the jaw of an animal thickly set with teeth; but a careful examination of its variations leads to the belief that it is a representation of the eye lashes. (See the Etudes sur le Manuscrit Troano, p. 55.)

cu. This has not been identified.

t. As there is no d in Maya this character stands for both t and d. It signifies space, the four marks leading towards the center representing the four cardinal points, and the phonetic base being the Maya, preposition ti, in, toward, at, in space.