[This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide.]
CMGG entry for syllabogram tz'u

Variant: fish

                              

MC = K&H                 JM                             TOK.p8.r4.c3

 

                                  

MHD.AA3.1&2&3                                                             0203bl          0203bl                    T203a

 

0203bh

 

·    Features – a fish facing upwards, biting the end of a “bracket”:

o The fish is an entire fish, consisting of tail fin, (optionally) pectoral and other fins, an eye and an open mouth.

o The bracket:

§ Often has reinforcement on the “inside” edge, with two struts from the reinforcement to the “outside” edge.

§ This is a component which also can be found as the upper half of (some subvariants of) pi.

§ This (sub)variant of tz’u has a bracket and fish, while that (sub)variant of pi has a bracket and KAWAK.

·    Bonn recognizes a (sub)variant which is a (mirror image) doubling of the single fish and bracket (0203bh).

o In this respect, this (sub)variant of tz’u has another strong parallel to the “bracket and KAWAK” (sub)variant of pi – they both have such a (mirror image) doubled form.

o The brackets are mirror images of one another, forming a single, inverted-u, but the fish (or KAWAK) are not (necessarily) mirrored, and occur just in their standard form (with the eye on the same side, in the case of tz’ u and the “stalactite”/“grapes”and “pond” on the same side).

 

Variant: boulder

                                     

TOK.p14.r3.c4                    MHD.XE7.1&2                                        1503st

?                                            ?                                                                -

 

                                                            

MacLeod&Bíró-DUDW.p383.pdfp11.fig6b               Polyukhovych                       

CLK Fragment                                                                 CNC Panel F3                        

7.<tz’u:ni> 9.<tz’u:ni>                                                   7.<9:<tz’u.ni>>                     

 

                      

mayavase.com (Kerr)  = HLHI                                               Randel Stela E3

K633 PSS-Q                                                                              AJ.<5:tz’u:ni>

6.<10:tz’u>.ni                                                                         

 

                   

MHD.XE7.3                         1503hh

?                                            -

 

·    Features – This variant is a boulder outline with two infixed elements (a “necklace” and “blades of grass”) in common with a number of other glyphs. The list below shows the unique element infixed in the top which distinguishes them from one another:

o ba: LEM-like element.

o ma: right-side-up AJAW-face.

o t’u: KAWAK.

o tz’e: a slightly curved, bold V with “dot protector” underneath (the “dot protector” replaces the “necklace”, and the bold V can sometimes be non-bold).

o tz’u: K’IN.

o HA’: cross hatched circle.

o “IMIX”: cross hatched circle or LEM-like element (usually distinguished from HA’ by the blood cartouche).

·    A strong argument that this is tz’u is presented in MacLeod&Bíró-DUDW (2019):

o Combined with ni, we get tz’u-ni è t’zun = “district”.

o The paper presents other contexts, in combination with other syllabograms, both before and after. These have yet to be captured here.

·    Both MHD and Bonn recognize a head variant, but it’s just a “generic head” with the characteristic elements of the non-head variant conflated into the head. However, both MHD and Bonn (2025-07-31) have not accepted the MacLeod&Bíró-DUDW reading of tz’u.