Variant: boulder

·    Features:

o A boulder outline with a “washer”-like element in the middle of the bottom.

·    Subvariants (3):

o A. “Whiskers”:

§ Semi-circular arc, higher in the middle than at either end, dividing boulder into a top and bottom half. The arc usually doesn’t have that much curvature (ends quite far apart), but can sometimes be so curved (end close together at the bottom of the glyph) that it resembles a “washer”.

§ In the bottom half of the glyph:

·      Two touching dots attached to the upper side of the arc, in the middle.

·      The above two elements forming an element resembling a “wood property marker”.

·      Optionally, the two touching dots can have a “protector” (TOK.p15.r1.c2, 1556st).

·      Optionally, the two touching dots with “protector” can degenerate into just a “grip”/ “inverted-u bracket” (MHD.XN3.1&2).

·      Optionally, the two touching dots can disappear (MHD.XN3.3).

§ In the top half of the glyph:

·      2 parallel ticks on the middle of the left wall (9 o’clock).

·      2 parallel ticks on the middle of the ceiling (12 o’clock).

·      2 parallel ticks on the middle of the right wall (3 o’clock).

§ MHD.XN3.1&2 are Classic and MHD.XN3.3 is Codical, which shows that the “whisker” variant existed in the Classic period and survived into the Post-Classic.

o B. “Wavy bands”:

§ A “washer” in the middle of the bottom.

§ From the washer, two slightly wavy bands emerge at about 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock, optionally tapering very slightly as they diverge upwards to touch the ceiling at about 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.

§ The MHD examples suggest that MHD.XN3.4 is Codical only.

·      Possibly, the ends of the curved arc of the Classic form got closer and closer together at the bottom of the glyph resulting in the “washer” (already happening in the Classic period).

·      That “washer” became the only form in the Codices.

·      It’s interesting to speculate whether the two touching dots of the “wood property marker” elongated into the wavy bands (unlikely?) – they form a pair and both forms occupy the same “position” in the glyph.

·    Do not confuse the boulder-variant of te with the flint variant of su as they both have “whiskers” (short ticks):

o te has “whiskers” in the top half only (at 9 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and 3 o’clock on the perimeter of the boulder outline), whereas su has “whiskers” at both the extremities of the flint outline.

o te has only two “whiskers” wherever there are “whiskers”, whereas su has three or more “whiskers”.

Also, te has a tendency to have a boulder outline, whereas su has a tendency to have a flint outline (though there are subvariants of su with a boulder outline as well).

·    Do not confuse the boulder-variant of te with lo:

o te has “whiskers” in the top half (at 9 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and 3 o’clock on the perimeter of the boulder outline)

o lo has no “whiskers” at all.

Variant: cave with wood

·    Features – “cave with wood”:

o Rectangular boulder with bold top half of left wall, ceiling, and entire right wall (= “cave”).

o Wood property marker “vertically” in the “cave”.

§ Slightly curved vertical line, bulging to the right, dividing the inside into roughly two halves.

§ Two vertical touching dots halfway up the vertical line, on the right side.

·    The wood property marker might be present in the boulder

Variant: wood

·    This is actually just TE’ = “tree”, “wood” used acrophonically (the final glottal stop is a very weak consonant, very easily dropped to make syllabograms).

·    None of the pedagogical sources nor MHD nor Bonn recognize the use of TE’ as te. (Sim: is this just a mistake on my part?)