Pictorial books from Mexico defy our definition of writing – Ñuu Dzaui pictography

The Mixtec script looks like pictures. It's a writing system. How does it work? What happened to it? Here's what makes their glyphs unique, even how their usefulness outlasted colonization.

~ Summary ~

Workers in California's strawberry fields organize under pictography from the land of their home language: La Mixteca, Oaxaca. Glyphs reaching back 1000 years record the history of a people called the Mixtec (by the Aztec Empire) or Ñuu Dzaui (in their classic language). I'll animate how this writing system was initially deciphered, how it works, and how it challenges our perspectives on writing. Along the way, I'll animate some key points that really intrigued me when I read about them in my main sources:

- an old colonial map served as a first Rosetta Stone for identifying glyphs
- the system's basic pieces consisted of logograms, tonal puns, puzzles and parallelisms
- "Mixtec" script can be considered pure logography, setting it apart even from "Aztec"
- reading glyphs required deep understanding of the old language and diverse modern varieties
- experts drew a line, putting "true writing" on one side and Mexico's old scripts on the other
- voices close to the scripts replied by nuancing or outright challenging definitions of writing
- pictorials use schemas and pieces, needing both deciphered and interpreted in order to be read
- pictography wasn't proto-writing but an advancement, with advantages over phonetic scripts
- mistakes reveal who wrote and read the books, and roles they played in pictorial performances
- scribes found a way to write multilingually, conveying messages in two languages at once

These insights lead us to end on the relevance of pictography to the community, the ñuu, throughout history. Pictography gained renewed importance under colonialism and, through what my main authors consider a prolonged period of erosion and endurance, continues to echo through the language, culture and artwork.

Thanks for watching. As in the poem title near the end, Ñuu Savi notice how often others speak for them, which happens yet again in this video. Below are links to help their efforts, to connect directly with their perspectives, and to vet my sources in detail.

~ Resources ~

Art, animation and most music by me. My sources document explains and supports claims and gives credit for images, sounds and fonts:

Other groups I often point to include the general list at the bottom of this section:

[AncientAmericas]

The teacher surprises us with a lovely end of the year gift. Excellent video!

[NativLang]

What a beautiful way of writing ✍📜❣
This one took about 315 hours of work. No breaks, more on the way.
My Writing Bee animation leading up to this got less attention ~ check it out if you missed

[ArturdeSousaRocha]

Software engineers: Proudly invent Unicode.
Mixtec scribes: Low-key play 5D ideographic chess with a bottom-up boustrophedon.

[TakoyakiStore]

About 5 minutes in and I knew where this was going. A language designed to be easy to understand what it was trying to say to people in a place where many languages are spoken. In some ways it's like writing purely in emojis or textless memes, and yet this seems far more robust than that. So fascinating!

[lyxthen]

Thank you! I don't speak mixtec, but I'm from Oaxaca and know many mixtec people. This kind of video are super important! Indigenous culture is such an important part of our heritage and we can't afford to lose it.

[uplink-on-yt]

"I'm busy this week. I'm painting a thank you note."

[emtoprma]

I grew up in Mexico City, in a family proud of our heritage. So I had some familiarity with pictograms and their names in Náhuatl. So at the start I had different words for the ones shown here. I actually doubted what I’d learn as a child. Maybe the book I had was wrong. Maybe it was Mixteco all along and not Náhuatl. Then it all clicked. Yes, it’s the same writing with the ability of being read in different languages. I love it. Thanks for the great effort of sharing this knowledge.

[timmccarthy]

"Scribes play with [tones] and engage in tonal puns."

(my flashbacks to Chinese class intensify)

[zh]

I learned about this system from Joyce Marcus' discussion of the Codex Nuttall in "Mesoamerican Writing Systems". She pointed out that the pictographs were capable of great subtlety. Ambassadors for a noble carry her name glyph on their backs, showing they are her representatives; and while tongue glyphs are familiar in Mesoamerican art to indicate that someone is speaking, the locals receiving Lady 6 Monkey's ambassadors have tongue glyphs covered in knives - literally "cutting words", insults.

[atlasaltera]

As a worldbuilder who imagines a scenario with more writing systems in use, I love that you've put a spotlight on this understudied script!

[JDRL]

As usual, amazing job man, I am not Mixtec, but a descendant from a similar ethnic group nearby in Oaxaca (ngigua/chocholteco) whose grandparents endured migration. Your work always inspires me regardless of the language, although I already knew your interest in Mesoamerican ones, this video just felt SPECIAL. Thanks so much

[hiddenhist]

The description of this script reminds me quite a bit of Nsibidi, used in Nigeria. In that case, we have less manuscripts (unfortunately), but some of them include simple records of court cases. Interesting stuff.

[abbbbbby]

nativlang swooping in to make the year good

[Rex-uvw]

It's amazing how after your explanation if felt like I could actually read a little bit of it, the images make sense and the connections become visible. I wish there were more resources like your channel for indigenous writing; I've been trying to learn Maya glyphs for a while but nothing is as clear as this. I'm making a playlist for your Maya videos now.

[TurelBS]

20:08 "Solamente otros hablan por nosotros" hits very hard, when all the papers and resources on all these ancient civilizations in MX are ignore in most studies abroad, because the writer doesn't have an english sounding name.

[marck_qwq]

I love this kind of respect for Mixteca culture, it’s so important for us to no forget our past, so much misters to discovery. Greetings from Mexico c:

[theconqueringram]

Mexican languages are so fascinating. Channels like this teach me information I never knew I needed to learn.

[paxphonetica]

Recent years we are surrounded by fast-food style linguistic contents, from tiktok and YouTube shorts. Rather than explaining things thoroughly, they simply yell “DID YOU KNOW” followed by random corny facts (sometimes not even facts), that have been told, explained, analyzed and discussed for like 10 thousand times by the old linguistic creators. All of those make me even feel more grateful for the contents made by Nativlang and Langfocus, and also make me upset, for seeing that they get much less attention

[deetlebee]

It was fascinating in University to be in the Communication Studies department that was where psychology, sociology, linguistics, and specifically English sat. That is all to say that this makes perfect sense to me. You cannot focus solely on the Writer OR the Reader (substitute the right noun for the medium you are thinking of). There is an interface and back-and-forth to develop the "meaning", no matter the physical or temporal distance. It is lovely to see your break down of a beautiful language and how it has impacted living people through today. This isn't a Dead or Forgotten people. <3

[starryeye]

Watching these episodes feels like long back to being a toddler watching seseme street...but way more overwhelming.