The Linguistic Affiliation And Phoneticism Of Teotihuacan Iconography

Correctly identified imagery in the art and iconography of Teotihuacan shows graphemic functions. From a comparative study of Teotihuacan imagery with coeval Maya imagery and writing, an empirically verifiable basis for the interpretation of Teotihuacan art and iconography is established. The method of analysis used in this study reveals that the Teotihuacan culture had a writing system very similar to that of the coeval Maya culture of southern Mesoamerica. And, finally, the analysis of graphemic functions in the art and iconography of the Teotihuacan culture leads to the conclusion that the people of Teotihuacan spoke a language closely related to modern Tzeltalan and Yucatecan Maya tongues. From the analysis of art, iconography, language, and writing, this study concludes that Teotihuacan was both linguistically and ethnically Maya.