New Release: Yucatec “xe”, Calendar Round

As we’ve discussed, modern Maya languages use sounds that were not used in ancient Maya languages. To write these modern words we need new glyphs. The new release includes a main and an affix glyph for “xe”. They were created by epigrapher Guillermo Kantun and are used with his permission. This release also includes calendar round dates, an initial support for a Spanish dictionary and some UI tweaks. This is release 2.5.11. Screen shots and details are below.

This screen shot shows Guillermo’s glyphs for “xe” integrated into glyph blocks with Professor Tokovinine’s glyphs for the Yucatec Mayan words xet, xebec, xeep, pex and mex. The first four glyph blocks use Guillermo’s affix glyph and the final glyph block uses his main glyph. The app integrates glyphs from multiple sources to create reasonable glyph blocks. That’s pretty cool. The app started with 600 ancient glyphs. We can easily extend it to support modern Mayan languages. The new glyphs work with the “Share” feature”, these glyph blocks can be emailed, sent as a text, etc. The new glyphs work with the “Read” feature letting users decode glyph blocks where they appear. We plan to add glyphs from other modern Mayan languages. If you have some, please reach out.

Here’s the new date converter. Under the Long Count you also get the date in Calendar Round in this case it is 8 K’ib 14 Man. As you change either the Gregorian or Long Count date the Calendar Round automatically updates. These dates were tested with the wonderful 2025 Maya Wall Calendar produced by the Maya Exploration Center. The date selector widgets were improved with suggestions from my friend Benjamin. Thanks Benjamin!

The About page now includes a QR code to download the app. This is useful when you want to “share” the app with someone. You just need to show your friend the QR code.

The app’s dictionary includes a few words in Spanish. More will be added with each new release.

I made a mistake with some glyph files when originally released these updates in version 2.5.9 on Dec 9 ,2024. So, on Dec 10 I first released version 2.9.10 to roll back the app and then released version 2.5.11 that fixed the glyph files. I believe 2.5.11 is working well.