I've been working on revamping the Aztec writing system page with all the latest research that have fallen into my grubby hands. The first addition is the Aztec syllabary. Instead of simply copying what's in the research papers, I have gone out and found the actual examples of the glyphs in various 16th century manuscripts whenever possible.
Obviously I didn't jetset around the world to gaze upon these gems. A lot of ancient books and manuscripts are now digitally scanned and places on online archives. They are absolutely invaluable tools for both serious researchers as well as casual amateurs.
So here's the Aztec syllabary. It's pretty big in real life, so it's quarter size here. Click on it to see the bigger version.
I am also going to have a chart of logograms and explanation on how the various glyphs are put together. Another new section would be the area calculations that involved trigonometry and fractional numbers.
Obviously I didn't jetset around the world to gaze upon these gems. A lot of ancient books and manuscripts are now digitally scanned and places on online archives. They are absolutely invaluable tools for both serious researchers as well as casual amateurs.
So here's the Aztec syllabary. It's pretty big in real life, so it's quarter size here. Click on it to see the bigger version.
I am also going to have a chart of logograms and explanation on how the various glyphs are put together. Another new section would be the area calculations that involved trigonometry and fractional numbers.
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ancientscripts- ancient scripts
- AncientScripts.com: a Compendium of Writing Systems
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Comments
However, if you tell me the meaning of your daughter's name, I could potentially translate it into Aztec. It wouldn't read "Yaretzi", but it would mean that.
I know Nahuatl can have consonants at the end of a syllable, is it correct to assume that there are potential ambiguities?
I think this is great. I wonder if these could be simplified so as to make hand writing and software fonts viable.
Good work - I can't wait to see what comes next.
Nahuatl certainly has consonants at the end of syllables but unlike Maya writing, as far as current research knows, Nahuatl simply discard these ending consonants. There isn't a lot of possibilities for ambiguities because more often than not there'd be logograms associated with the syllabic signs and thus you know for a fact what the glyphs mean.
I was under the impression that the Maya (and perhaps the Zapotec) were the only pre-columbian civilizations that possessed a phonetic writing system. It always seemed troubling to me. How do you administrate a vast empire with only logographic writing?
Btw - do you know were to find a complete list of Aztec glyphs? I've searched the internet but can only find subsets.
Thanks!
Maybe a better linguist might have this idea, or stumble upon this comment and try their hand at a proposal. Hopefully one day, that'd be cool. :D