Mayan Miller
So I’ve been reading Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts which is absolutely fascinating if you’re into languages and seeing how people solve puzzles. It could have been a dreadfully dry read, but Andrew Robinson has a skill for making the subject totally entertaining. I keep wanting to see what happens next (not kidding).
Today I learned that Mayan script wasn’t deciphered until the 1990’s, and even then it’s only mostly deciphered. The Maya were crazy creative with their writing. Comic books aren’t nearly as young as we think they are. Yucatan is derived from “uic aithan” – the phrase spoken to the Spanish conquistadors by the Maya when they asked what their land was called. It means “what do you say, we do not understand you”
Also, since it pertains to tonight’s drawing, they don’t appear to have an R sound. Why “mila”? Because it’s probably how “Miller” would sound, in Mayan, and, earlier tonight, I drew a version of his head that looked like a Mayan glyph, which reminded me of the reading, which led me to this. I know. It’s a little lame, but this is actually my third drawing tonight (didn’t like either of the others before) and I’m damn tired now. So there. ;)
Side note regarding the “crazy creative” nature of Mayan writing: There are nine possible two gliph combinations I could have used to write this. All would be legitimate. The rule of thumb appears to be to choose the gliphs most artistically appropriate for the word and / or setting. I chose these because he does creative things with his hands (drawings, grunt hunt, etc.) and the la looks like his cute little shaved head. ;)
Happy today Mila.
