. Contributions to North American ethnology. Vol. I-VII, IX. Indians of North America; Ethnology. LANDA'S LETTER CHARACTERS. 141 letters), using' the significations given by Lancia, will suflficeto convince any one that it is impossible to form the day from the letter characters, even allowing the widest latitude in the representation of sounds. Take, for example, the character for Muluc, as compared with those for m and I; Ahaii, as compared with those for a, ]i, and «; Kan, as compared Avith k and n; Chkchan, as compared with r, //, and n; Ezaiiah, as compared with e, z, n, and b, &c. Bu
. Contributions to North American ethnology. Vol. I-VII, IX. Indians of North America; Ethnology. LANDA'S LETTER CHARACTERS. 141 letters), using' the significations given by Lancia, will suflficeto convince any one that it is impossible to form the day from the letter characters, even allowing the widest latitude in the representation of sounds. Take, for example, the character for Muluc, as compared with those for m and I; Ahaii, as compared with those for a, ]i, and «; Kan, as compared Avith k and n; Chkchan, as compared with r, //, and n; Ezaiiah, as compared with e, z, n, and b, &c. But it does not necessarily follow from this that Landa was wholly mistaken. The days may have retained their charac- ters as symbols from •more ancient times, before any approach to phonetic elements had been made, and hence might not present any of these elements. As we find some of these day symbols on the Palenque Tablet, which is probably much older than the jMannseript, we have some foundation for this supposition. Another ground for this supposition is that we have good reason for believing that some at least of these characters are used in the Manuscript and Codex as denoting something quite different from the days they represent, or that which the name of the day signifies. Notwithstanding this, there are some of the day and month characters in which we cau detect, beyond doubt, some of the letter elements, showing them to be to a certain degree at least phonetic. For example, the charac- ter for Caiiac differs Init slightly from that for cii (qu?); Chiwn and Tzec. o-H-o n HA MA TI (me, mo?) Sign of Asijiration. Fig. —Landa's Maya Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Powell, John Wesley, 1834-1902; Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region (U. S.
Size: 1751px × 1427px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectindiansofnorthameric
