[This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide.]
CMGG entry for "DPHB"

Translation: “double penis-headed body”
Part of speech: Unknown

Logogram spellings of "DPHB"

                                   

M&L.HT3                                        MHD.HT4                              0703md

-                                                        -                                              -

 

·    Bonn treats the “PHB” (“penis-headed body”, the “basic” glyph) and “DPHB” (“double penis-headed body”, the “mirror-image doubling” of “PHB”) as variants of the same glyph:

o “PHB”: A basic single body is 0703st, considered equivalent to MHD.HT2.1.

o “DPHB”: The basic glyph “doubled” is 0703md, considered equivalent to MHD.HT4.

§ The two figures are back-to-back (symmetrical along a vertical axis in the middle).

§ Each of the doubled figures has an element, resembling the wood property marker

·      It’s a single long slightly curved vertical line with two or three touching dots on the inside of the curve.

·      The element is not the wood property marker because the wood property marker only ever has two dots, whereas the element in question here can have two or three dots.

·      The element reinforces each back and is mirrored in the same way as the two figures themselves.

·      The element is present in both “PHB” and “DPHB” examples, in both Bonn and MHD examples, but MHD gives examples of “PHB” where the element is absent, i.e., MHD considers it to be an optional element (particularly for “PHB”).

o “DPHB” not assigned a reading or meaning by either MHD or Bonn.

·    Note that Bonn and MHD treat “DPHB” and “PHB” in quite different ways:

o MHD treats them as fundamentally different glyphs, both with no reading and meaning.

o Bonn treats them as variants of the same glyph, a glyph with no reading (Bonn currently doesn’t give meanings anyway).

·    MHD contrasts to M&L:

o “DPHB” was M&L.HT3, not reassigned as MHD.HT4.

o The head is less obviously a penis in MHD.HT4 than in M&L.HT3.

o This may or may not be related to a contrast in “PHB” (MHD.HT2 and M&L.HT2, i.e., the assigned code is unchanged between M&L and MHD), where the penis is also less evident or even totally absent in some examples of MHD.HT2, whereas it was present in the (sole) example in M&L.HT2.

o See “PHB” for more information.