alternatehistory.com

Maya hieroglyphs are the writing script used for classical Maya, unique for being one of the few independent inventions of writing in the world. They also have been in disuse since the Spanish conquest of the Maya.

Do they have any chance to continue being used? I think the classical form of the Maya script is probably impossible for this, but a simplification could be used for Maya languages (and beyond?). After all, isn't the modern Tifinagh script, used for some Berber languages, a recent invention based on the long-dead historic Tifinagh? Since the Maya would've been mostly illiterate at the point "Neo-Maya" is introduced, you can also see the example of Aboriginal syllabics in North America for a non-Latin script being used successfully to increase literacy in the native population.

The biggest issue is that the Maya script itself would need to be deciphered long before it was OTL, so you can have a "Neo-Maya" actually based on the original Maya script and not just an indirect relation to it like Cherokee is to Latin.

Who would do this? I think it's almost certain that it would be a missionary, whether Catholic or Protestant, or another churchman. Is there a way to set up an early decipherment of Maya combined with a drive to increase literacy amongst the Maya that results in a simplification of the script that is thus promulgated widely? I think the results could be interesting, especially if tied in with the Caste War and Chan Santa Cruz somehow, or any other indigenous movements in the Yucatan.
Top