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Difficulty: MediumInferences from the Text

In the sixteenth century, the Franciscan friar Diego de Landa recorded what he believed to be a phonetic alphabet of the Maya script by asking bilingual Maya informants to provide the hieroglyphic glyph corresponding to each Spanish letter. For nearly a century, epigraphers led by J. Eric S. Thompson dismissed de Landa's record as a fabricated artifact of cross-cultural confusion, arguing that Maya writing was an entirely ideographic system composed of mystical symbols representing whole concepts rather than sounds. However, in 1952, linguist Yuri Knorozov recognized that de Landa's informants had not provided letters, but rather syllabic signs corresponding to the Spanish names of the letters spoken aloud—for instance, writing the glyph for "cu" when de Landa pronounced the Spanish letter "q" (/ku/). Knorozov demonstrated that the Maya script was logosyllabic, combining logograms (word-signs) with phonetic syllables (consonant-vowel pairs). To write a word ending in a consonant, such as "tzul" (dog), scribes employed the principle of synharmony: pairing the initial consonant-vowel glyph ("tzu") with a secondary glyph sharing the same vowel ("lu"), whose vowel was phonetically silent in recitation. This insight revealed that apparent inconsistencies in glyph combinations were systematic phonetic spellings rather than arbitrary variations.

Which of the following inferences regarding Diego de Landa's documentation of the Maya script is most strongly supported by the passage?

  1. A
    De Landa deliberately altered the Maya informants' glyph selections to force the indigenous script into alignment with Spanish grammatical structures.
  2. B
    De Landa's recording method was modeled directly on earlier phonetic documentation techniques established by European missionaries in Mesoamerica.
  3. De Landa's informants interpreted his spoken prompts as requests for the phonetic syllables heard in the names of the Spanish letters rather than for isolated alphabetic phonemes.Answer
  4. D
    De Landa's compilation succeeded in providing a comprehensive catalog of all consonant-vowel combinations present in sixteenth-century spoken Maya.
  5. E
    De Landa correctly identified that the Maya writing system employed silent terminal vowels through the rule of synharmony.

Answer

De Landa's informants interpreted his spoken prompts as requests for the phonetic syllables heard in the names of the Spanish letters rather than for isolated alphabetic phonemes.
The correct choice is directly substantiated by the passage's explanation of Knorozov's breakthrough: when de Landa pronounced the names of Spanish letters, the bilingual informants transcribed the phonetic syllables they heard (such as writing the syllable sign 'cu' upon hearing the letter name for 'q') rather than single alphabetic letters.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the prompt and isolate the specific textual details concerning Diego de Landa's interaction with his informants.
The text states that de Landa asked informants for glyphs corresponding to Spanish letters, and Knorozov identified that informants responded to the spoken names of the letters by recording syllabic signs (e.g., writing 'cu' when hearing 'q').
Inference questions require identifying claims strictly supported by connecting explicit textual premises.
2
Evaluate the relationship between de Landa's acoustic input and the informants' written output.
Because the Spanish name for the letter 'q' is pronounced /ku/, the informants rendered the syllable they heard rather than isolating an abstract single alphabetic unit.
This establishes the exact communicative mechanism that led to de Landa's documentation.
3
Match this deductive relationship against the provided answer choices.
The statement expressing that informants provided phonetic syllables corresponding to the spoken names of the letters matches the textual evidence without adding unstated assumptions.
A valid reading comprehension inference must not exceed the logical boundaries set by the passage.

Key Concept

Textual Inference via Local Synthesis
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Inferences from the Text

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