Re: Mayan numerals (again)

From: Szelp, A. Sz. <a.sz.szelp_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 12:53:46 +0200

The question is, whether the two versions (horizontal and vertical) are
warranted for or not.
With my limited knowledge of the matter, I would believe only one set to be
encodable, the other being free / stylistic variation.

Sz

Szelp, André Szabolcs

+43 (650) 79 22 400

On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 9:19 PM, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> Last year, I started a discussion about proposing the Mayan numerals for
> inclusion in Unicode. Several people on the list supported this idea, and
> encouraged me to submit a proposal. I did not manage to do so last year,
> but I am ready to now.
>
> I have access to dozens of different books with their page numbers, tables
> of contents, and publication dates in mayan numerals. Several of them use
> the numerals in other ways, such as numbered lists or century numbers (ie,
> "siglo 16", 16th century, with 16 in Mayan numbers). All of these are from
> a single publishing house, and I know of 2 other publishers who use similar
> practices. None of the samples I have are textbooks, and it is common for
> math textbooks here in Guatemala to have a section on Mayan numerals,
> typically with a few simple addition problems or the like.
>
> The publisher of the books I have is interested, and would probably sign
> on to my proposal, though it would take about a month for them to get full
> consensus on this.
>
> I can also provide photos of Guatemalan currency notes, which have mayan
> as well as arabic numerals on them.
>
> I'd like to propose 40 glyphs: the vertical and horizontal versions of the
> digits 0-19. The zero glyph would be in it's "shell" form; the several
> minor variants of this form would be considered as the same base glyph.
> This initial proposal would not include head variants or the petroglyphic
> "flower" zero, nor would it include petroglyphic marginal decorations on
> the glyphs for 1, 6, 11, and 16, as all of those are generally used in a
> context of fully glyphic writing, which has a number of difficult technical
> issues to resolve before it's ready for unicode. (Although I could provide
> at least one modern example of a glyphic text; this is at least to some
> degree a living art today, though it was dead for centuries.)
>
> I'd like to know what should be my next step, and if anyone who's more
> experienced with unicode procedures would like to advise me more closely.
>
> Sincerely,
> Jameson Quinn
>
Received on Tue Jul 02 2013 - 06:01:58 CDT

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