[Aztlan] Query

[Bruce Rogers]

>Hi All,
>          I thought that i would sentd am email to the discussion 
>list and introduce my self. I'm Dave and I live in Australia. I have 
>been interested in the Maya since I saw a documentry on them years 
>ago.
>  I would like to know where I can find information on ho wto convert 
>my name to a Maya Glyph. Any help would be appreciated 
>_______________________________________________
>Aztlan mailing list
>Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
>http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/aztlan

Dave,

You can do this two ways.  If you have a phonic chart then you can 
construct a "Mayanised" name.  One can approximately sound out one's 
given name using the Maya syllabuses and make an "Anglicized" Maya 
name.

If you have a bigger data base, then you can construct your own name 
using the various glyphs to make a phrase to your own liking. 
Alternately, one can use the main glyph and add super/subscripts as 
well as pre/postscripts to construct a modern "gylph".

Since I am a geologist who is also handy with pen and ink (or 
electrons these days) and crawl around caves a lot, I chose a series 
of glyphs about what I do.

There are a pair of glyphs - glossing to "Itz'at" - that is applied 
to the Crown Prince -  so to speak -  that was usually the king's 
brother.  This individual was usually the Head Scribe or Itz'at.  He 
was also the "science Advisor" to the king and was sort of the keeper 
of all sorts of natural "science" information.

There is another glyph that means (he-she-it) stone house (= actun 
[literally: ac/ak = to cover &  tun: stone = cave] - dzotnot [cenote] 
- chen [well]).  That takes cave of the cave part.

Yet another verb is (he-she-it) sits in, taking care of the action 
part of the phrase.

Since Maya grammar is essentially the same as used in English, one 
can string these phrases/glyphs along like a sentence in English. 
Thus my three glyph band says (more or less): In the cave sits the 
scientist.

I drew these up, made a large xerox of them, and brought them to 
Yukatan in 1995.  We know a couple near Uxmal in the Northern 
Lowlands that not only runs a superb restaurante, gift shop, and 
palapas, but he is also a Master Woodcarver.  His day job is regional 
archaeological representative for the Puuc Hills, soon to take over 
managing one of the larger Puuc Hills sites (he's tried of commuting 
to Merida every day).  I gave him the glyph band and asked if he'd 
carve me a panel.  In the ensuing conversation I found out that my 
way of saying of the phrase had changed over time and now if I 
actually spoke the phrase, I'd use a different word.  Once again, 
although we know Classical Maya was spoken in the Uxmal/Merida 
[Ti'ho] area is close to its modern equivalent of Yukateco Maya, 
subtle variations are present.

In any case I now have a cedar plank with the glyph band in my home 
office.  While playing around with translated/transliterated words, 
we even found a glyph denoting "his workstation."  I used it to make 
up a birthday card for a colleague who worked as a rocket science 
tech writer/engineer and was also interested in Maya glyphs.

Have fun!

-- 
Bruce Rogers, earth scientist on a good day

U.S. Geological Survey
Western Publications Group  MS 951        Desk: (650) 329-5041
345 Middlefield Rd.                                           FAX: (650) 329-
Menlo Park  CA  94025  USA                         bwrogers at usgs.gov

  "The efforts of many researchers have already cast much darkness on
the subject; and it is likely that, if they continue, we will soon know
nothing about it at all."                                        - Mark Twain