On the Abstract Nature of Mayan Roots and Logograms

Although the nature of logograms in Mayan hieroglyphic writing has been previously dis-cussed (Давлетшин 2005; Davletshin 2013), its link with the specific features of roots in Ma-yan languages has not been explored in detail, notwithstanding this question is very im-portant for the correct transliteration of these signs. The person inflection involving the Set A markers triggers morphophonological processes in words that begin with a glottal stop that leads to the change of this segment for the palatal and labiovelar semivowels. The coding of this phenomenon in writing through syllabograms and logograms shows some particularities that indicate differences in the orthographic de-sign of these signs. The analysis presented here shows that the Mayan syllabograms allowed the surface forms of words to be represented in writing, while the logograms corresponded to the underlying forms. These observations agree with the theory of orthographic depth of Katz and Frost (1992) and allow us to formulate a preliminary hypothesis about the acquisition of Mayan writing: the scribes would first learn the simplest and least numerous signs, the dots and bars for the numerals, then syllabograms, and then they advanced with the most complex subsystem, logograms.