[Aztlan] Chilam glottal stop?

[Barb MacLeod]

Hi, Gary,

I'll start with Balam: to be precise, all examples of [b] in Mayan languages 
are considered to be glottalized  (and written by most linguists as /b'/, 
but in actual realization, these phonemes vary along a continuum of 
hardly-any to lots. Distinct "swallowing" of the /b'/ is most noticeable in 
final position, where there is no release of breath as there is when we 
English speakers say, for example, 'cab'. But even this varies from language 
to language. Epigraphers vary on whether we write the sound as /b'/ or 
simply /b/. I use /b/.

When I write the word you refer to, I write it as Balam when citing the 
documents (e.g. 'Chilam Balam of Chumayel') and as /bahlam/ or /báalam/ when 
citing it accurately in the languages.

As for your query about " ch?ilam ", no, there's no glottal stop after /ch/. 
If, as John Sosa suggests, the term originated as /chil-a'an/, a participle 
meaning 'lying down', then the participial suffix /-a'an/ indeed has a 
glottal stop in its midst.

Barb MacLeod

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <aztlan-request at lists.famsi.org>

> Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:58:10 -0500
> From: Gary Daniels <Gary at lostworlds.org>
> Subject: [Aztlan] Chilam glottal stop?

>
> Does ?chilam? as in Chilam Balam have a glottal stop: ch?ilam?
>
> I just read in a FAMSI guide to writing Mayan glyphs that Balam actually 
> has
> a glottal stop (b?alam) but I never see it written that way. So this makes
> me think it?s possible that Chilam also has one.
>
> -Gary C. Daniels
> http://www.LostWorlds.org
>
>
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