Harmony Rules and the Suffix Domain: A Study of Maya Scribal Conventions

Abstract

In 2004, Lacadena and Wichmann proposed a set of orthographic rules for the Maya script. The choice of using one of three different patterns of syn- or disharmonic spellings allowed Maya scribes to signal whether word-final syllables contained a short vowel, a long vowel or a glottal stop. In our earlier paper we focused on the lexical evidence for these orthographic «harmony rules». Although it was stated that the rules apply equally well when a suffix is involved and when no suffix is involved, the data relating to the former situation were not discussed in detail. This is the aim of the present paper.

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“…2 En este artículo adoptamos las convenciones de transliteración y transcripción propuestas por Alfonso Lacadena y Søren Wichmann (2004;, pero con cambios menores, como el uso del signo /ˀ/ para representar la oclusiva glotal, en vez del tradicional /'/, y considerando el reflejo que usualmente ocurre entre la vocal larga con tono alto en maya yucateco (v. gr. óol, íich'ak, áayin, wáay, yáax, etc.) y la aspirada glotal en lenguas cholanas (v. gr.…”