Maya Glyph Activity – Step 3

Step 3: Identify your glyphs!

Now you’re ready to identify your glyphs!

Using the syllabary chart, find glyphs for each syllable in your name. Start with the main syllable and choose one of the square glyphs to form the core of your name.  For each of the other syllables you can choose one of the supporting glyphs.

You may notice one of two things as you choose your glyphs: there are places in the chart where glyphs are missing, and there are some sounds missing from the chart altogether.  This is because we don’t yet know every Maya glyph, and because some of the sounds in our language were not used by the Maya and thus do not have glyphs.  But there are work-arounds for these situations!

If you need a glyph that is missing from the chart, you can use a neighboring glyph and pair it with the vowel-only glyph for the vowel you need.

For example, in the name Benjamin, there are no syllables for “be” so you would use the glyphs for “b(a)” and “e”.

If you have a sound in your name that is not found within the Maya glyph system you can use the chart at the end of the syllabary to find a substitution.

Using the name Kristen for an example, no Maya glyphs exists for an “r” sound, so we substitute an “l” for this consonant.  The “ste” sound also lacks a Maya equivalent.  The substitution chart suggests using “tze” instead – a similar sound.  Using that, K(a)-Ri-Ste-N(a) becomes K(a)-Li-Tze-N(a).

Here are glyphs for the three names we’ve been using as examples:

You will notice that there are many different combinations you can choose from.  Choose the ones you like best!

When you have all your glyphs, the last part is putting it all together!