The written language of the Maya was made up of about 800 glyphs, or symbols. Each one represented a word or a syllable, and could be combined with the others in an almost infinite number of ways. As a result, there were three or four different ways to write almost every word in the Maya language.

SYMBOLS

winik
man, person

witz
mountain

kin
sun

chan
snake

nal
place

nik
flower

pakal
shield

---

way
spirit

balam
jaguar

hal
manisfest

tz'am
throne

tun
stone

ha
water

kah
town,
area

---

ahaw
lord

bih
road

k'ak'
fire

kun
seat,
center

na
house

akot
dance

chan
sky