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

Metaphor and Couplets

Floyd Lounsbury first noted the presence of a semantic couplet at C17 and E2 from the Temple of the Cross at Palenque (Lounsbury 1980:107-115). The first verb reads ’i-hu-li, for ’i-huli, "he arrived." At E2 the collocation is comprised of a hand on top of the syllable ka and the logogram kab’ for "earth." Lounsbury connected this to a metaphorical reference to birth in Ch’ol, huli ti panimil, täl lum, meaning "to arrive on the topside, to touch earth." This connection showed a close affinity in this case between Ch’ol and the language of the hieroglyphic script. It is also interesting to note that in Ch’orti’ a somewhat similar couplet is used to describe the birth of a child. In Ch’orti’ the expression "to arrive (here) on the earth" (ayo’pa to’r e rum) is a common metaphor for birth. It can be seen in the following couplet:

tya’ ak’otoy yajk’in akuxma e yxik
  tya’ ak’otoy  ajk’in twa’ ayo’pa to’r e rum

when the day arrives for the woman to give birth
  when the day arrives to arrive (here) on the earth

While Ch’ol more closely retained this metaphor for birth, the Ch’orti’ idiom does combine both the "arriving" and the "earth" elements similar to the Palenque text.

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