###
We can see, therefore, in the Landa alphabet a tendency to
simplification. And this is what we would naturally expect. When the
emblems--which were probably first intended for religious inscriptions,
where they could be slowly and carefully elaborated--were placed in the
hands of a busy, active, commercial people, such as were the Atlanteans,
and afterward the Phoenicians, men with whom time was valuable, the
natural tendency would be to simplify and condense them; and when the
original meaning of the picture was lost, they would naturally slur it,
as we find in the letters pp and x of the Maya alphabet, where the
figure of the human face remains only in rude lines.
The same tendency is plainly shown in the two forms of the letter h, as
given in Landa's alphabet; the original form is more elaborate than the
variation of it. The original form is ### The variation is given as ###
. Now let us suppose this simplification to be carried a step farther:
we have seen the upper and lower parts of the first form shrink into a
smaller and less elaborate shape; let us imagine that the same tendency
does away with them altogether; we would then have the letter H of the
Maya alphabet represented by this figure, ### ; now, as it takes less
time to make a single stroke than a double one, this would become in
time ### .
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337