We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
Signs read in blocks.
Also known as: Maya syllabic signs, Maya glyph syllabary
The Maya syllabic signs, combined with logograms into square glyph blocks.
Write syllables which combine with logograms inside Maya glyph blocks.
Contexts: Language and transcription, History
A scribe could write the same word logographically, syllabically, or as a mix, and chose freely — so Maya writing has stylistic variation in spelling that most scripts do not permit.
Contexts: Language and transcription, History
The block, not the sign, is the reading unit, which is why glyph texts are read in a double column rather than a line.
Contexts: Language and transcription, History
Rounded syllabic signs packed with logograms into square blocks, each block read in a fixed internal order before moving to the next.