What's hiding inside Maya glyphs - History of Writing Systems #6 (Syllabary)

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Video

John Horgan
by NativLang
published on 12 October 2017

Maya glyphs aren't just Mesoamerican eye candy. They're a working writing system!

Unlike the thousands of logograms encountered in your journey so far, the Maya syllabary lets you combine a very limited number of syllables into a block to write a word. With a few tricks, you can even use those syllables for more complicated sound patterns, like words that end in a consonant.

That's not all Mayan writing can do! There are logographs, logographs plus syllables, logographs plus sound hints (phonetic complements) that invite Maya scribes to indulge in all kinds of creative and inventive patterns.

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Cite This Work

APA Style

NativLang. (2017, October 12). What's hiding inside Maya glyphs - History of Writing Systems #6 (Syllabary). World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/video/1297/whats-hiding-inside-maya-glyphs---history-of-writi/

Chicago Style

NativLang. "What's hiding inside Maya glyphs - History of Writing Systems #6 (Syllabary)." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified October 12, 2017. https://www.worldhistory.org/video/1297/whats-hiding-inside-maya-glyphs---history-of-writi/.

MLA Style

NativLang. "What's hiding inside Maya glyphs - History of Writing Systems #6 (Syllabary)." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 12 Oct 2017. Web. 25 Dec 2024.

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