A Comparative Analysis of Ch’orti’ Verbal Art and the Poetic Discourse Structures of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Ch’orti’ Poetics and the Hieroglyphic Script

I believe that within the poetic traditions of Ch’orti’ (and other languages Mayan relevant to the hieroglyphic script) there remain vestiges of poetic structuring that reflect elite or ritual discourse forms found in Mayan hieroglyphs. Since the language of the hieroglyphs was highly conservative (Houston et al. 2000:123), it stands to reason that the Classic poetic tradition would also likely show little change over time. In addition, metaphorical references and archaic imagery that are so tightly bound to poetic forms would logically be later preserved in memorized texts as well as the discourse structures found in ritual prayers in modern-day descendant languages. (Sadly, the Ch’orti’ have largely abandoned the practice of most of the ceremonies in which much of this poetic tradition once flourished). This project looked to both structure as well as content in Ch’orti’ poetic oral texts for points of correlation with the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

The following is a preliminary comparison of some of the related poetic structures and imagery in Ch’orti’ and the hieroglyphs that I have observed so far.

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