Special Nahuatl Writing PARI Journal
The PARI (Precolumbian Art Research Institute) Journal Vol VIII No 8 is a special issue on Nahuatl (Aztec) writing. I've been following the work of Alfonso Lacadena (author of the leading article of this journal) and Soeren Wichmann for a while because their different approach to Nahuatl writing. Most people (I'm culpable myself) treat Nahuatl or Aztec writing as a logographic system consisting of glyphs representing morphemes or words, with the occasional rebus principle thrown in for rudimentary phonetism. Lacadena and Wichmann are arguing that Nahuatl writing is a logophonetic system, with a fully functional and standard set of glyphs representing sounds, and thus far, their argument makes a lot of sense. You can read for yourself at:
http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/804/index.html
The articles are a bit academic, but it provides the history of why Nahuatl writing has been neglected because of its perception (very much like Maya 50 years ago), and an argument that certain post-Conquest documents should be included as legitimate Nahuatl writing instead of heavily influenced by Spanish. The bonus is, of course, the Nahuatl syllabary.
http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/804/index.html
The articles are a bit academic, but it provides the history of why Nahuatl writing has been neglected because of its perception (very much like Maya 50 years ago), and an argument that certain post-Conquest documents should be included as legitimate Nahuatl writing instead of heavily influenced by Spanish. The bonus is, of course, the Nahuatl syllabary.