gems, jade, Fischer-Book, languages, linguistics, Mesoamerica

Berendt presents a proposed analytical alphabet for recording the Indigenous languages of Mexico and Central America, intended to provide a consistent system for representing sounds encountered in linguistic and ethnographic research. Drawing on his extensive study of Mesoamerican languages and manuscripts, he identifies significant speech sounds and assigns characters and diacritical signs for their transcription, with the aim of reducing the inconsistencies produced by Spanish and other European orthographies. The brief work is primarily linguistic rather than archaeological or gemological and reflects nineteenth-century efforts to establish systematic phonetic methods for documenting Indigenous American languages.