It was based on these theories that the extant Mayan literature was reviewed once again and successfully deciphered. It was in the second half of the 20th century that researchers developed theories regarding phonetic representations among the Mayan alphabets. He attempted to compile the key in alphabetic fashion and although his attempts were futile, the key became a valuable source for subsequent attempts to decipherment. Attempts to understand the Mayan alphabet can be dated as far back as the 16th century when a Spanish bishop accompanying the conquistadors penned down a key for the Mayan syllables. The Mayan alphabet is the only kind of Mesoamerican script that has been successfully deciphered. It is using these books that modern researchers have been able to decipher the Mayan alphabet. Although the Spaniards destroyed most of the Mayan books when they invaded Mayan lands, some of them survived and exist to this day. The largest source of Mayan alphabets are the extant Mayan books called codices. Other sources include inscriptions on extant Mayan ceramics. Some of the sites have stelas and reliefs carved into the architectural facades, comprising of the Mayan glyphs. One of the primary, and earliest, sources of the Mayan alphabet are the archaeological sites of ancient Mayan cities. Modern scholarship has been able to access a vast body of Mayan language, and different combinations of Mayan alphabets, thanks to many extant Mayan sources. At any given time, the Mayan language didn’t make use of more than 600 glyphs, although the total variety of the glyphs reaches as high as 800. Another 100 Mayan alphabets were used to denote the names of places and gods, denoting proper nouns. The Mayan script includes nearly 550 logograms and 150 syllabograms. Mayan alphabets are a combination of these two. ![]() Another type is called the syllabogram which represents a single syllable, rather than a word. One type is the logogram, which refers to such an image that can represent an entire word. They are so called because they comprise of an image, or a set of images, to represent any phrase. onwards, evidence of the use of Mayan alphabets has been found in the historical evidence gathered from a number of extant Mayan sites. ![]() Researchers estimate that the Mayan alphabets, or glyphs, were developed much earlier than this date. The dates of some recent Mayan sources have been traced to 300 B.C. Mayan Alphabet OriginsĪlthough it is not known exactly when the Mayans develop their specific hieroglyphic script, the earliest historical records of the written Mayan language date back to 250 B.C. Mayan script is the only Mesoamerican script that has been deciphered and understood for the most part as a result of modern scholarship and research. So the language allowed Mayans to communicate using phonetic phrases as well as symbolic terms. The glyphs of the Mayan language comprise of both logograms and syllabic glyphs. The language comprised of a huge body of glyphs and was called hieroglyphics by the early Europeans who discovered it. Mayans inscribed their writing on stelas, in books called codices and on monumental architectures. Mayans had a fairly advanced written language which helped them pen down a large body of literature.
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