The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya ‐ English, English ‐ Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings Including nouns, adjectives, verb roots, verb inflections, pronouns, toponyms, a selection of proper names of objects, animals, and buildings, as well as a selection of nominal phrases of deities, supernatural entities, and historic individuals Authored and compiled by Erik Boot (email: [email protected]) April 2009 (version 2009.01) Mesoweb Resources URL http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/vocabulary/Vocabulary‐2009.01.pdf For updates, please check: URL http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/vocabulary/index.html Front cover: Photograph by Linda Schele, © David Schele, courtesy Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., www.famsi.org Photograph shows part of the back inscription on Tikal Stela 31 Front cover design: Erik Boot Font: Palatino Linotype For the main text: Palantino Linotype set at 11.5 pnts, for footnotes at 10 pnts. Times New Roman at 11.5 pnts (main text) and 10 pnts (footnotes) for all hyphens About the author and compiler: Erik Boot received his Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands. His dissertation, published in 2005 by Research School CNWS, is concerned with the origin and history of the Aj Itza’ of the central Peten and the northern Maya lowlands capital city of Chichen Itza, Yucatan. He is an independent researcher, who maintains three weblogs: • M a y a • N e w s • U p d a t e s • (http://mayanewsupdates.blogspot.com/) • A n c i e n t • M e s o A m e r i c a • N e w s • U p d a t e s • (http://ancient‐mesoamerica‐news‐updates.blogspot.com/) • M a y a • G l y p h • B l o g • (http://maya‐glyph‐blog.blogspot.com/) Table of Contents Preface ii Introduction 1 Part 1: The Classic Maya ‐ English Vocabulary 12 Part 2: The English ‐ Classic Maya Vocabulary 215 Appendix A: Abbreviations, Monument Designations, and Site Codes 232 Appendix B: Classic Maya Numerals 239 Appendix C: Classic Maya Numeral Classifiers 241 Appendix D: Classic Maya Names of the 20‐day and 5‐day Periods 241 Appendix E: Classic Maya Pronouns 245 Appendix F: Classic Maya Verb Roots 246 Appendix G: Classic Maya Kinship Terms 250 Appendix H: Classic Maya Animal Names 251 Preface also thank Justin Kerr for his kind permission to include a small In 2002, the original version of the preliminary vocabulary of selection of texts elicited from the Mesoamerican Portfolio and Maya hieroglyphic spellings was posted at Mesoweb. During the The Maya Vase Data Base, both hosted on the web by the seven years since the publication of the vocabulary important Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. advances have been made in the decipherment of Maya writing For suggestions, corrections, additions, etc., in regard to the and it was time to update the vocabulary. This update was also original preliminary vocabulary as well as several versions of the instigated by the disappearance of my original database, which updated preliminary vocabulary, I thank, in alphabetical order, was lost in a severe computer crash in October of 2006. Jeff Buechler, Carl Callaway, Christophe Helmke, Jenn Newman, Carlos Pallan, Christian Prager, Joel Skidmore, Mark Van Stone, On this occasion I like to express my acknowledgments. In the Erik Velásquez, and Gordon Whittaker. For the final result, first place I thank Joel Skidmore for hosting the original and the including each and every remaining mistake and/or fallacy updated preliminary Maya ‐ English, English ‐ Maya vocabulary (typos included!), I solely bear the responsibility. of hieroglyphic readings. Additionally, I thank him for his kind permission to include a selection of photographs from the As this updated vocabulary is work in progress, comments, Mesoweb‐PARI Photo Database. I thank Dr. Sandra Noble, suggestions, additions (with an image of the hieroglyphic text), director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Meso‐ corrections, etc., are always welcome at my email address (see american Studies, Inc., for her kind permission to employ a cover page). Please use “updated vocabulary” in the subject line. photograph of the back side of Tikal Stela 31, made by Linda Schele, which appears on the front cover of this vocabulary. I ii Introduction decipherments are not included in these listings (1988 and onwards). This is the updated preliminary Classic Maya ‐ English, English ‐ For those readings, the reader may turn to a section entitled “Known Classic Maya vocabulary. During the period of June 2007 ‐ March Glyphs and Expressions” in the recent notebooks for the Texas Maya 2009, the original vocabulary (Boot 2002) was checked, revised, Meetings, held every year in March in Austin, Texas. In an elegant reduced, enlarged, and is now annotated in close to 300 cases. way, the late Linda Schele (1954‐1998) introduced specific new The updated version of this preliminary vocabulary of decipherments, the epigraphers who presented these decipherments, hieroglyphic readings (still a precursor to a fully illustrated and the applications and implications of those decipherments (e.g., vocabulary) contains some 1,275 main entries, each defined with a Schele 1998: 34‐55). Since the initial posting of the preliminary minimum of one transcribed glyph example (over 2,500 transcription vocabulary in January of 2002, two illustrated dictionaries have examples). The updated English‐Classic Maya vocabulary contains appeared: Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs by the late John over 530 entries. At present, it is not possible to add to each entry the Montgomery (2002) and, online at the FAMSI website, the Maya name(s) of the epigrapher(s) who presented the decipherment or Hieroglyph Dictionary by Peter Mathews and Peter Bíró (2006). A short reading in question first or with the most convincing argument. For illustrated word list can be found in Reading the Maya Hieroglyphs, those interested in the history of decipherment, I direct the reader to written and illustrated by Michael Coe and Mark Van Stone (2001). Coe’s 1992 book “Breaking the Maya Code,” as well as to an The entries in the original and this updated preliminary important compilation entitled “The Decipherment of Ancient Maya vocabulary have been elicited from hieroglyphic texts (either carved, Writing” (Houston, Chinchilla M., and Stuart 2001), containing many incised, or painted) on stone and wooden monuments (stelae, lintels, of the landmark articles which have been pivotal to the decipherment altars, etc.), on portable objects of stone, wood, bone, and shell, in of Maya writing. Also, two extensive explanatory glyph identification murals, on cave walls, on ceramics, and in three of the four surviving listings are available. First, the listing compiled by John Justeson, screenfold books. For this vocabulary, I present entries in compliance published in 1984; second, the listing compiled by Kornelia Kurbjuhn, with the following phonemic orthography, through which the published in 1989. Both listings identify the glyphic signs according vocabulary is also organized, and which in alphabetic order reads: ’, to the numbers as allocated by J. Eric S. Thompson in his 1962 catalog. a, b, ch, ch’, e, h, i, k, k’, l, m, n, o, p, p’, s, t, t’, tz, tz’, u, w, x, and y. To be Most of the glyph identifications have multiple entries by different precise, no Maya word opens with a vowel; these words actually epigraphers and through these entries it can be seen that not all open with a glottal stop, a consonant. For easy alphabetic structuring, epigraphers agree on certain decipherments, while other decipher‐ the glottal stops have been omitted. The Classic Maya consonant and ments are simply outdated. It also has to be noted that more recent vowel system may be represented as follows: 1 a. Consonants 1 Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Stops voiceless p t k ’ glottalized p’ t’ k’ voiced b Affricates voiceless tz ch glottalized tz’ ch’ Fricatives voiceless s x voiced j h Liquids l Vibrants Nasals m n Semivowels w y b. Vowels Front Central Back (unrounded) (rounded) (rounded) High i u Mid e o Low a 1 In the previous version of this Classic Maya ‐ English, English ‐ Classic Maya vocabulary I chose to employ /b’/ for the voiced labial stop. However, as there is no contrast between /b/ and /b’/, in this updated preliminary vocabulary the voiced labial stop is represented by /b/. At present, no logographic or syllabic sign(s) has (have) been identified for the glottalized labial stop /p’/. Possibly, no words containing this sound entered the presently known corpus of hieroglyphic texts. 2 Table 1: Classic Maya Sounds Alphabetic Order Syllabic values (T‐number association not exhaustive) ’ ’a, ’e, ’i, ’o, ’u a ’a (T12 [late Classic], T228, T229, T238, T745) b ba (T255var, T501, T655, T690, T757 [late Classic]), be (Tnn), bi (T585a, T1029), bu (T21), bo (T519, T693) ch cha (T520var, T668), che (T148), chi (T219, T671), cho (T590b), chu (T515a, T601) ch’ ch’a (T93, T603, T634), ch’o (T758a) e ’e (T542a, T742a) h ha (T60var.1042), he (T574, T587), hi (T60var, T60:528), ho (T672), hu (T740) j ja (T181, T683b, T1025a), je (T69, T617:69), ji (T88, T136), jo (T589, T607, T642), ju (T266a) i ’i (T237var, T679) k ka (T25, T27, T738), ke (T220var, T711), ki (T102), ko (T110), ku (T528) k’ k’a (T669), k’e (Tnn), k’i (T72, T76, T77, T81, T627a), k’o (Tnn), k’u (T149, T604) l la (T139, T140, T178, T360, T534), le (T56, T188), li (T8, T24, T82, T83, T276, T828), lo (T580), lu (T568, T654) m ma (T74, T74:T255var, T502), me? (T761a), mi (T163, T173, T807), mo