From the above extracts from Spanish writers we may infer that—
1. The Maya graphic system was recognized from the first to be distinct from the Mexican.
2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few nobles.
3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was the preservation of their history and calendar.
4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (_figuras_), ideograms (_caracteres_), and phonetic signs (_letras_).
We might reasonably expect that the Maya language should contain terms relating to their books and writings which would throw light on their methods. So, no doubt, it did. But it was a part of the narrow and crushing policy of the missionaries not only to destroy everything that related to the times of heathendom, but even to drop all words which referred to ancient usages. Hence the dictionaries are more sterile in this respect than we might have supposed.
The verb “to write” is _dzib_, which like the Greek γράφειν, meant also to draw and to paint. From this are derived the terms _dziban_, something written; _dzibal_, a signature, etc.
Another word, meaning to write, or to paint in black, is _zabac_. As a noun, this was in ancient times applied to a black fluid extracted from the _zabacche_, a species of tree, and used for dyeing and painting. In the sense of “to write,” _zabac_ is no longer found in the language, and instead of its old meaning, it now refers to ordinary ink.
The word for letter or character is _uooh_. This is a primitive root found with the same or a closely allied meaning in other branches of this linguistic stock, as, for instance, in the Kiché and Cakchiquel. As a verb, pret. _uooth_, fut. _uooté_, it also means to form letters, to write; and from the passive form, _uoohal_, we have the participial noun, _uoohan_, something written, a manuscript.
The ordinary word for book, paper, or letter, is _huun_, in which the aspirate is almost mute, and is dropped in the forms denoting possession, as _u uun_, my book, _yuunil Dios_, the book of God, _il_ being the so-called “determinative” ending. It occurs to me as not unlikely that _uun_, book, is a syncopated form of _uoohan_, something written, given above. To read a book is _xochun_, literally to _count_ a book.