FULL PHONETIC COMPLEMENTATION, SEMANTIC CLASSIFIERS, AND SEMANTIC DETERMINATIVES IN ANCIENT MAYAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING

This paper discusses a little understood spelling practice of Mayan hieroglyphic writing, the use of full phonetic complementation of logograms, and some implications derived from this practice, particularly when compared with similar practices in other logosyllabic scripts from around theworld (e.g., Egyptian and Luvian), which suggest that such practice existed in association with semantic classifiers. Also, a preliminary distinction between two types of semantograms is made: semantic classifiers and semantic determinatives. Previous discussions of both types of signs are reviewed, and it is proposed that the two are more widespread and important in Mayan writing than previously thought. The implications of these results are clear: Mayanists, particularly epigraphers, need to pay more attention to this distinction in their decipherment efforts, as well as in any future philological and paleographic endeavors. The paper concludes with a proposal for the interrelationship between the stylistic evolution of graphemes and the development of semantic classifiers and determinatives. This article addresses three traits of Mayan hieroglyphic orthography: semantic determinatives, semantic classifiers, and full phonetic complementation of logograms. The first trait, semantic determinatives, has received very little attention to date, with a few original exceptions (Justeson 1986:447‐449; Kelley 1976:206‐211; Schele 1983:19‐21), as well as a recent claim that such signs are not a productive category of the script at all (Zender 1999). The second trait, semantic classifiers, has only recently been recognized as a useful orthographic category in Mayan writing (Hopkins 1994; Hopkins and Josserand 1999). The third trait has not, to this author’s knowledge, received a detailed or even cursory treatment in previous literature, except for a passing mention by Houston and Coe (2003:154), who assert, without elaboration, that “pattern of fully syllabic spellings accompanied by logographs is no longer thought to characterize Maya writing.” Thus, there is a current need for discussion of these orthographic principles aimed at testing their validity and promoting their systematic study and accounting in the decipherment process. It is a well known and accepted fact that such conventions characterize a plurality of scripts from the Old World, such as Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Hittite, Luvian, and Elamite, among others—scripts that share many structural characteristics with Mayan. Consequently, it is a worthwhile pursuit not only to investigate such traits for the sake of more fully understanding Mayan script, but also to elaborate a basis for diachronic and synchronic comparisons with similar scripts elsewhere. This paper argues that such traits do characterize Mayan writing and that it is possible to study them both synchronically, from a functional perspective, and diachroniconically, with the goal of understanding not only the evolution of the script but also the scribal practices and associated cognitive processes responsible for such evolution.