Editing Maya script (section)

=== Harmonic and disharmonic echo vowels ===
[[File:Dresden codex, page 2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec Maya writing]] in the ''[[Dresden Codex]]'', c. 11–12th century, [[Chichen Itza]]]]
Phonetic glyphs stood for simple consonant-vowel (CV) or vowel-only (V) syllables. However, Mayan [[phonotactics]] is slightly more complicated than this. Most Mayan words end with consonants, and there may be sequences of two consonants within a word as well, as in ''xolteʼ'' ({{IPA|[ʃolteʔ]}} 'scepter') which is CVCCVC. When these final consonants were [[sonorant]]s ''(l, m, n)'' or [[guttural]]s ''(j, h, ʼ)'' they were sometimes ignored ("underspelled"). More often, final consonants were written, which meant that an extra vowel was written as well. This was typically an [[echo vowel|"echo" vowel]] that repeated the vowel of the previous syllable. For example, the word [kah] 'fish fin' would be underspelled ''ka'' or written in full as ''ka-ha''. However, there are many cases where some other vowel was used, and the orthographic rules for this are only partially understood; this is largely due to the difficulty in ascertaining whether this vowel may be due to an underspelled suffix.

{{harvtxt|Lacadena|Wichmann|2004}}  proposed the following conventions:
* A CVC syllable was written ''CV-CV,'' where the two vowels (V) were the same: ''yo-po'' [yop] 'leaf'
* A syllable with a long vowel (CVVC) was written ''CV-Ci,'' unless the long vowel was [i], in which case it was written ''CiCa: ba-ki'' [baak] 'captive', ''yi-tzi-na'' [yihtziin] 'younger brother'
* A syllable with a [[glottalization|glottalized]] vowel (CVʼC or CVʼVC) was written with a final ''a'' if the vowel was [e, o, u], or with a final ''u'' if the vowel was [a] or [i]: ''hu-na'' [huʼn] 'paper', ''ba-tzʼu'' [baʼtsʼ] 'howler monkey'.
* Preconsonantal [h] is not indicated.

In short, if the vowels are the same (harmonic), a simple vowel is intended. If the vowels are not the same (disharmonic), either two syllables are intended (likely underspelled), or else a single syllable with a long vowel (if V<sub>1</sub> = [a e? o u] and V<sub>2</sub> = [i], or else if V<sub>1</sub> = [i] and V<sub>2</sub> = [a]) or with a glottalized vowel (if V<sub>1</sub> = [e? o u] and V<sub>2</sub> = [a], or else if V<sub>1</sub> = [a i] and V<sub>2</sub> = [u]). The long-vowel reading of [Ce-Ci] is still uncertain, and there is a possibility that [Ce-Cu] represents a glottalized vowel (if it is not simply an underspelling for [CeCuC]), so it may be that the disharmonies form natural classes: [i] for long non-front vowels, otherwise [a] to keep it disharmonic; [u] for glottalized non-back vowels, otherwise [a].

A more complex spelling is ''ha-o-bo ko-ko-no-ma'' for [haʼoʼb kohknoʼm] 'they are the guardians'.{{efn|Vowel length and glottalization are not always indicated in common words like 'they are'.}} A minimal set is,

*''ba-ka'' [bak]
*''ba-ki'' [baak]
*''ba-ku'' [baʼk] = [baʼak]
*''ba-ke'' [baakel] (underspelled)
*''ba-ke-le'' [baakel]