[Aztlan] William Gates on ' zero, naught , and cipher'

[Lorna Huff]

Dear Listeros, 
 
I just came across a pioneering perspective on this topic :

On p. 86 of  An Outline Dictionary of Maya Glyphs (1931), William Gates  shows several forms for 'Zero-time' and 'Naught' glyphs.

On p. 88 he footnotes:

"The matter of our nomenclature here was a question. We use the three words zero, naught and cipher interchangeably save that 'cipher' rather denotes the symbol itself, for zero or naught. The Maya using both the Arabic and the Roman systems, and further complicating the matter by the 'zero' or initial day of a time-period, a definite choice of terms became necessary. We solved the point by adopting the term 'zero-time' for the period-initial signs, which leaves untouched the current convenient term 'zero -Yaxkin,' etc. 

The shell signs and their inscription correspondent are strictly the Maya ciphers, meaning naught; a proper term is then, the sign for naught."



Lorna

 
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