·    Earlier literature says this word occurs very rarely, but thanks to the power of MHD queries (“blhyphen contains ya-ja-la”, 2025-04-19), surprisingly many instances can be found.There are in fact eight(!) instances in MHD (in the “Classic - Blocks” option, but including the Codices doesn’t result in any more hits).

·    From the context/syntax, the word ajaljib is a noun indicating a type of ceramic vessel. It’s found only in the possessed form: ya-ja-la-ji-bi è yajaljib (a search on “blmaya1 contains ajaljib” doesn’t produce any unpossessed forms.)

·    There’s no image available in MHD for one of the eight instances, but all the others have excellent drawings and a few even have photographs.

·    Two of the examples use the “rat-head” variant of ji (Tripod Plate, LC.p2.196 and TIK MT216b  Stuccoed Tripod Plate) and one of them uses hi instead of ji (MS5320). All the others use the “paw” variant of ji.

·    There are two ways that this noun has been translated:

o At a “finer” level, analyzing the morphemes of the word – Boot-ASEA.p2.pdfp2.para2.l+4 (2005), in reference to MS1674, a jawante’ in a private collection: The next collocation [A4-B4] provides the second half of the paired expression, it spells ya-ja-la ji-b’i, the second example of such a spelling (the first example can be found on Tikal MT 216b: ya-ja-la ji[b’i]). // This new spelling example clearly indicates that ajal is the root of the expression, not ajaj or ajij as recently suggested by Stuart (2005: 130). The alternative spelling ya-ja ji-b’i is thus an abbreviated spelling. As suggested at another occasion (Boot 2004a, 2005a), following a suggestion by Barbara MacLeod, ajal is the gerund of a verb aj- with the meaning “to wake up; to awaken”. The suffix -j- (an abbreviation of -Vj- or -aj-) is added to derive an intransitive root, after which the suffix -ib’ can be added to derive an instrumental noun. As such yajaljib’ can be analyzed as y-aj-al-(a)j-ib’ or 3rd.POSS.pc-WAKE.UP-GERUND-suff.INTR-suff.INSTR for “(it is) the wake-up instrument (of)”. The previously known four examples of yajaljib’ were all found on plates.

o At a “broader” level, as a type of plate, without analyzing the morphemes of the word. This is the approach taken by MHD (up to at least 2025-04-19) where all eight instances are translated as “his plate” (= “the plate of …”).