SIX On the Representation of the Glottal Stop in Maya Writing Alfonso Lacadena Universidad Complutense, Madrid Søren Wichmann Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology & University of Copenhagen Introduction In Houston et al. (this volume, 1998) the idea is proposed that the nonidentity of the vo- calic part of signs that serve to spell morphemes (henceforth morphemic vowels) and the vocalic part of signs that function as phonetic complements (henceforth complement vowels), known since Knorozov as so-called disharmonic spellings, indicate complex vo- calic nuclei (i.e., vowel length, the presence of a glottal stop or /h/). Synharmonic spellings, however, normally indicate a short vowel although, being unmarked, they may occasionally correspond to various kinds of complex nuclei. One of the assumptions of Houston et al. (1998), then, is that there is no distinction made between vowel length, glottalization, and preconsonantal /h/ by means of disharmonic spellings. In this paper we embrace the main, innovative hypothesis, that complex syllable nuclei were distinguished from short vowels in the script, but we also argue that vowel length and glottal stops were clearly distinguished from one another in the orthography. Further, we argue that neither disharmonic nor harmonic spellings indicate a preconsonantal /h/. Such an element is nor- mally not indicated in the spelling at all, although in rare cases it may be indicated by in- ventive uses of logograms or syllabic signs that contain /h/. 70 103 ——————— 70. The idea that a glottal stop was distinguished from vowel length in the script by a specific pattern of complementation was originally suggested in a message sent by Lacadena to fellow epigraphers on July 27, 1999. Since then, we have cooperated in refining and verifying the initial proposal and have both con- tributed with an equal portion of epigraphic and linguistic work. Lacadena’s research was supported by a grant from the Comunidad de Madrid (Orden 2046/1998 de 2 de septiembre, Comunidad de Madrid) as part of the project “Banco de Datos Filológicos Mayas de Tierras Bajas: Textos Logosilábicos.” Dur- ing our research several colleagues have shown an interest in discussing our ideas, for which we are very grateful. In particular we wish to mention Stephen Houston and John Robertson, who have joined us in extensive and lively debates as we developed and refined our views, as well as Marc Zender, Cecil Brown,