Evoking the dualism of sign classes: A critique on the existence of morphosyllabic signs in Maya hieroglyphic writing

Abstract

This article pursues a critical review of the so-called morphosyllabic signs proposed by Houston, Robertson & Stuart in 2001. These are supposed to be syllabic signs carrying meaning to spell grammatical morphemes. I would like to argue from a phonological and grammatological perspective why I believe that morphosyllables cannot work as proposed. By comparing the spelling principles of preposed morphemes with suffixes, I expose a pattern that points to a simple syllabic use in these cases. There are indications that sound integrations at morpheme boundaries are realised by spelling alterations and that the recipients knowledge of the written language was required to mentally anticipate under- spelled phonemes.