·     The uninflected (=unpossessed) form of the verb is al:

o If it were yal, then the possessed form would be uyal, which is not found (in the meaning of “child of mother”).

o In parentage statements (which are by their nature in the possessed form), it is yal, showing that the base form is al.

o Stewart-PSaPSS.p25 gives the base form as AL.

o Some sources transliterate this as LAY (lost reference).

·     BMM9 is simply CRN Panel 3 D4 with the initial phonetic complement removed.

·     Variants (6):

o A. Hand holding sprout – features:

§ Left hand with fingers outstretched to the left.

§ Holding an element which has a “feeler” / scroll with a protector over it (both can be bold or non-bold, independent of one another) – Stewart-PSaPSS.p25.l-5 explains that this is a sprout, he goes on to explain three other logographic variants (hand holding AJAW, hand holding CHAN (a bird head) and a pure syllabogram spelling.

§ Note that BMM9.p16.r4.c2 has a slightly aberrant form, where the scroll encloses a row of three tiny, non-touching dots, and the scroll itself has no protector, but instead is the protector for the three tiny dots.

o B. Hand holding upside-down “AJAW”-face:

§ A hand holding a right side up “AJAW”-face is CH’AM, though there are exceptions, where AL has a right side up “AJAW”-face (e.g. YAX Lintel 10 A2b, YAX Lintel 10 F5a, Stewart-PSaPSS.p26.fig2.B) – in these cases, the initial phonetic complement of ya results in the reading as yal.

§ So the presence of an initial phonetic complement of ya can help disambiguate AL from CH’AM.

o C. Hand holding a “BEN” (Stewart-PSaPSS.p26.fig2.C, K&L.p41.#6.5, LAC Panel 1 J1).

o D. Bird head – features:

§ Medium-sized beak with (optionally larger) nostril.

§ With a further bird head in its mouth – Stewart-PSaPSS.p26.l+1 explains that this is a baby bird emerging from the mouth of the mother bird. Sim: i.e. in contrast to MUWAAN – where the smaller bird is being eaten – the smaller bird here is being nurtured.

§ Bird spiral in the bottom right.

§ 3 small non-touching dots in a row, within the spiral (bottom right) or within their own oval (top right) – these are the row of circles in the “feather”-variant of o.

§ Forehead ornament, which can be the (non-full-bird-head variant of) ti, or an even more reduced form which is just a long oval with a spine.

o E. LEM – features:

§ Abstract variant of LEM: rectangular boulder outline containing one internal arc and that internal arc containing, in turn, its own internal arc.

§ There are optionally four touching dots hanging from the bottom of the first inner arc.

o F. God head (GI of III in BMM9) – features:

§ “Darkness” in the top of the head.

§ Large square god eye – the same four touching dots (as in the LEM variant) can hang from the bottom of the eye.

·     Stewart-PSaPSS.p26.fig2 states that a hand grasping a right-side-up “AJAW”-face or a “CHAN” is also AL (K&L.p41.#6.5):

o The example he gives has a preceding ya, which would imply an initial a- in the root.

o This is supported by K&L.p41.#6.5.

o He also gives some examples (Stewart-PSaPSS.p30) of grasping with wa suffix, and he calls it CH’AM. He claims this is an -aw ending, making them ch’am-aw ç CH’AM-wa:

§ These also have a ya, which doesn’t fit with a reading of CH’AM; Dorota Bojkowska: this is indeed very confusing – possibly the “ya” is a “1” (with 2 fillers).

§ Two of the three examples he gives are actually -jiiy endings from ji-ya, which lessens the weight of his argument.

·     Dorota Bojkowska – do not confuse al = “to say” vs. yal = “to throw down” (defeat in battle).

·     AT-E1168-lecture12.t0:31:56 is one of the rare instances when the word is used in the unpossessed form (i.e. without the initial y-) – see baah al in the rest of the CMGG.

·     Do not confuse the hand variant of (y)AL (which grasps a sprout) with CH’AM = “to grasp” (which grasps a right-side-up AJAW-face).

·     Do not confuse the bird variant of (y)AL (which has the small head of a bird in the mouth of the larger bird-head main sign) with MUWAAN (which has a bunch of feathers in the mouth of the larger bird-head main sign).

·     Usage:

o In the meaning of “child of mother”: all three hand variants (sprout, “AJAW”-face, CHAN(-sky) and bird head variant.

o In the meaning of “here is” (common in the PSS of ceramic vessels): LEM variant, god head variant, read as ALAY / LAY = “here is”, “this is”, “this one id”.

o Speak: LEM variant (hand variant: check this with actual examples).

 

·     Stewart-PSaPSS.p26 says this is in the context of a parentage statement.

·     Hamann-PiCM.p6.para1: As with other relationship terms, this is practically never found without the possessive prefix.