CMGG entry for syllabogram k'a      (This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide and Concordance.)

Variant: hand

                                         

MC                              K&H                            MC                                   JM                             TOK.p20.r2.c1

 

·     The outline of this glyph is a left fist, viewed from the back of the hand. It is one of four glyphs with this characteristic:

o cha: IK’ in the top left.

o k’a: horizontally stretched, cross-hatched, inverted-U in the top left.

o ho: 3 non-touching dots in a triangular formation, pointing downwards.

o (One variant of) Glyph-G7: with the head of a young man below and a NAAH on the left of both.

The bottom left has a 180-degrees rotated curved-L with one or two reinforcing lines to the right.

·     In the hand variant of k’a:

o The horizontally stretched, cross-hatched, inverted-u can also take the form of a ka-comb with teeth pointing downwards and with a bold handle (JM and TOK.p20.r2.c1).

o The area in the bottom left enclosed by the curved-L can have three non-touching dots in it, vaguely reminiscent of the three non-touching dots in si (MC).

 

Variant: camera shutter

                  

TOK.p11.r4.c1                   0627st

k’a                                       -

 

Aguateca Archaeological Project

AGT Stela 19 A2-B2

<NAH:5:TUUN:ni>.<k’a?:{ay}>

 

·     This looks a little bit like a mo without the ring of touching dots around the outside and without the snake coming out of the centre.

·     A search in MHD “Classic – Blocks” with “blcodes contains XF3” yields 11 hits. However, MHD treats this glyph as a logogram K’A’, not as a syllabogram k’a. MHD (objabbr = AGTSt19) A2-B2 gives: nah-5-tun-ni k'a'? ok-ki è nah ho’-tuun k’a’ay ook = “the base/leg? expires?” – both interpretations seem valid (see also logogram K’A’).

·     There are no strong, concrete reasons to think that TOK.p11.r4.c1 and 0627st are the same glyph. But they share enough commonality (the slightly curved “spokes”) that it seems worthwhile to at least list them together. The salient differences are:

o The outer perimeter of TOK.p11.r4.c1 doesn’t have a dotted spine on the inside, while that of 0627st does.

o The “spokes” of one go in the opposite direction to those of the other (TOK.p11.r4.c1 has a “clockwise” feeling, while 0627st has an “anticlockwise” feeling).