Variant: comb
MC K&H TOK.p13.r4.c1
MC K&H JM TOK.p8.r2.c5
Zender-BH.p4.Fig5b Zender-BH.p4.Fig5c
CPN Temple 21a Bench CPN Temple 18 SW Jamb
sa.ja (part of Yax Pasaj Chan K’awiil) sa.ja (part of Yax Pasaj Chan K’awiil)
Sub-variants (2)
· Full: double comb with two bars in the middle.
· Single comb with two, one, or no bars on the right.
Notes
· Do not confuse the (“two-comb”) full variant of sa with tz’i:
o tz’i has the bolding going all the way across the ceiling, whereas sa has a break caused by the double vertical bars.
· Do not confuse the (“two-comb”) full variant of sa with the boulder-only variant of to:
o to has crossed bands in the middle, whereas sa doesn’t.
· Do not confuse the (“two-comb”) full variant of sa with the boulder-variant of su:
o sa has two symmetrically placed “combs” with a double vertical band between them whereas su has only a single vertical band separating the two halves with “whiskers” (which only superficially resemble the combs of sa).
o sa has dots at the end of each tooth of the comb whereas su has no dots at the end of each “whisker”.
o sa has no dots associated with the double vertical bands down the middle whereas su has two touching dots on one side of the single vertical band.
Variant: human head
MC K&H TOK.p24.r3.c4
Sub-variants (1)
· Human head with KAB in mouth – the top of the mouth is not needed – the KAB can begin immediately below the nose.
Variant: crest
MC JM
MC JM Stuart = Montgomery
PNG Stela 8 Y13
u.<sa:ja:la> u.<sa:ja{l}>
Sub-variants (2)
· A. Full:
o Top
§ Left: vertical scroll curling to the left (optionally bold) with protector.
§ Right: Touching (NW to SE) diagonal bars, optionally with reinforcement on one long and one short edge.
o Bottom: AT (=circle with crossed bands in an X).
· B. Reduced: top part of full form (= the “crest”).
o PNG Stela 8 Y13 is a context in which there can be no doubt that the word written is sajal. This shows that the “reduced” variant isn’t just used for wu/hu, but can be used to write sa as well.
o This is the usual phenomenon of the “third dimension”, where glyphs are written “in front of” other glyphs (from the point of view of the reader). As in the reduced variants of AJAW or NAL, this leaves just the top part of the later glyph peeking out from behind the other glyph – a “crest” of some sort – giving the illusion of a reduced variant on the top.
o This means that the reduced form can be read as sa, along with the readings wu and hu.
§ The reduced form is listed as sa in JM (2002/2006) and MC (2000/2005) and the PNG Stela 8 Y13 example shows that this is entirely appropriate.
§ Strangely, K&L seems to have excluded it.
§ In BMM9, it is given as wu, and Dorota Bojkowska has a handwritten note that Beliaev suggests hu.
§ In FK2, it is given as hu.