[Aztlan] Mesoamerican Writing

[Lawrence Lo]

Dear David,

For Zapotec, you'd want to check out work from Javier Urcid.  FAMSI has a
section on Zapotec writing written by Urcid:
http://www.famsi.org/zapotecwriting/.  I have to admit I have yet to
completely read through this essay, but I have read through his 2001
_Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing_ where he described linear sequences of signs
inscribed on related monuments in Monte Alban's South Platform.  These
sequences are quite regular, contain a good number of non-calendrical signs,
and likely represent sentences.  You can see a simplified version of these
sequences in my amateur Zapotec writing page at
http://www.ancientscripts.com/zapotec.html, about 2/3 of the way down.

In terms of Mixtec, it was similar to Nahua writing in that phonetic
elements were used in names via the rebus principle, that is, using similar
words with that can be drawn easier to represent similar-sounding words that
are hard to draw.  The most well-known example is the town known as
Teozocoalco in Nahuatl but as Chiyo Ca'nu in Mixtec.  It means "Great
Foundation", but often it's depicted as a bent foundation, broken
foundation, or even a man trying to break the foundation.  This is because
ca'nu "great" is nearly homophonous with ca'nu "bent" (different tone).
Another example is that the glyph for "plain" is drawn as a feather mantle
because both "plain" and "feather" are pronounced as "yodzo" (different
tones again).  

I think I relied on Mary Elizabeth Smith's _Picture Writing from Ancient
Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps_ (1973) researching for my
Mixtec page.  

Regards,

Larry

______________________________
Lawrence Lo
www.ancientscripts.com
Ancient Scripts of the World



-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of David Becraft
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 4:39 PM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: [Aztlan] Mesoamerican Writing

Kwalli Teotlac Listeros,


I am looking for evidence of linguistic elements in the Mixtec or Zapotec
Manuscripts either of pre-Hispanic or post-Colonist origin.

Alfonso Caso hypothetized that there were Nadzuhui linguistic elements in
their Manuscripts.  Has anybody else done any research as to the links
between language and writing in the Mixtec and Zapotec areas?

I know that the Nahuas associated linguistic elements into their Manuscripts
(-pan; tlan-; -tzin-; etc).
I am looking for direct evidence of Semasiographic and/or Glottographic
Script outside of Nahua Writing.

Tlashtlawi,

David F. Becraft
Anthropology
Southern Oregon University
Ashland, Oregon

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