·    Only K&L gives the additional meaning “gopher”; K&H, BMM9, 25EMC give only “image” / “self” (TOK doesn’t give meanings). 25EMC also gives “head”, “first” as an additional meaning. K&H, L&K, 25EMC indicate that it can be used as ba.

·    Usage:

o That this glyph started out as the head of a gopher – to write BAAH = “gopher” – is clear from the iconography, with the mammal ear, stubby nose pointing downwards, teeth pointing downwards, and the infixed K’AN = “yellow” (reflecting the tan/brown colour of a gopher). All the more so with cognate words for “gopher” being b’a, b’ah, b’aah, b’aj in many of the modern Mayan languages (Kaufman-APMED.p596.pdpf596).

o However, by the Classic period it was already much used to write the (near) homonyms for “head” and “image”. The result was the “logogram” BAAH being used “as a rebus” to write “head” (e.g., tu’ baah = “on(to) the head of”, baah <title> = “the most senior person of a particular title”), “image” (e.g. ubaah = “(it is the) image of”, ubaahilaan = “(it is the image in impersonation of” / “(it is the) personification of”.

o Perhaps in the Classic, but certainly in the Post-Classic of the codices, this glyph was also used as the syllabogram ba.

See MHD statistics below.

·      The nicknames “Jog” = Jaguar-Dog and “Rabbit” were used when the meaning and reading of the glyph was unclear:

o Googling "18 Jog" "maya" will still produce a very large number of hits; and the same applies for "18 Rabbit" "maya". However, the use of this nickname was wider than in just the name of Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil. Other instances of ubaah were also called “jog” – see Miller-NoaSP.p12.c1.para4.l+1&l-8 (1974).

o Ashmore-SPP.p209.pdfp11.para3.l+6 (1991): The same text also mentions the name of a Copan ruler, known as 18 Jog or 18 Rabbit, who was captured by Cauac Sky of Quirigua on 9.15.6.14.6 (l May 738), and beheaded, probably on the same date.

o Ashmore-SPP.p225.fn5 (1991) (footnote to previous quote – Ashmore-SPP.p209.para3.l+6): Not all epigraphers agree on reading the name of this ruler. Thompson (1962:354) interpreted the creature represented in the T151 glyph as a combination "jaguar" and "dog"; hence the word "jog." Kelley (1962:Figure 2) identified the XVIII Jog collocation as the name of a ruler at Copan, so this reading has historical precedence (Marcus 1916; Proskouriakoff 1968, 1913). It remains the preferred reading for some, who read T151 as "pocket gopher" (e.g., Fash 1988; William Ringle, personal communication 1991). Other epigraphers, however, have argued on semantic grounds that T151 does portray a rabbit, and therefore read the ruler's name as 18 Rabbit (Riese 1986: 100; Schele and Miller 1983:28, 49-50). [Sim: The reference to T151 seems to be a typo for 757, as T151 is a totally unrelated glyph. Probably the author’s hand-written manuscript had a “7” which the typesetter mistook for a “1”.]

o Newsome-ToP&PotW.p226.c2.fn1 (bottom) (2001): 18-Rabbit's name was first identified by Kelley (1961), who called him "18-Jog." The "jog" part of this nickname was a compromise, reflecting Kelley's uncertainty over whether the T757 "rodent head" glyph that forms its main sign might represent a jaguar or a dog. Schele and J. Miller (1983) coined the nickname "18-Rabbit-God K," based on their identification of T757 as a short-eared tropical forest rabbit. The authors also speculated that the first part of 18-Rabbit's name should be read “Uaxaclahun Uba…”, noting Kelly’s earlier observation that T575 can substitute for T501 in the first syllable of bacab (Schele and J. Miller 1983: 28). David Stuart finally achieved the complete reading of 18-Rabbit’s nominal glyphs, which includes K’awil as the hieroglyphic name of God K. T757 is now known to represent a gopher head; its phonetic reading, bah, is a term for “gopher” in the Mayan languages. [Sim: this is Ruler 13 of CPN, now read as Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil.]

o Altman-PMK.p1.fn1 (2013): Before epigraphers deciphered the phonetic and logographic components of his name [Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil], they resorted to the nicknames of "18 Jog" or "18 Rabbit" to identify the 13th King of Copan Kelley, D.H. 1962 Phoneticism in the Maya Script Thompson, J.E.S.

·    Variants (3):

o A. Representational (head) – features:

§ Mammal ear.

§ K’AN (“yellow”) on the cheek or back of head (in K1398 B6-A7, it appears in the forehead, but there it is being used purely as a ba, not as BAAH in its meaning of “image”).

§ Small, roundish eye.

§ (Optionally) a large eye protector.

§ Protruding tongue.

§ There can occasionally be quite long and complex scrolls emerging from the mouth (e.g., K&L.p13.#1.6 = BPK Stela 1 O1, K&L.p13.#1.7, Komkom Vase S3, Berlin Museum Ta Xin Chan’s Plate glyph-block #8 in the examples above). These elements are not a separate glyph, but simply part of the iconography – they are “leaves emerging from the mouth of the gopher, as gophers eat plant material and drag it back to their burrows to eat” (Matthew Looper, personal communication July 2023, paraphrased).

o B. (Semi-)abstract – features:

§ A stylized gopher head.

§ A “ladder” in the forehead.

§ A pair of gopher teeth.

o C. Full figure:

§ Only given by K&L and Bonn.

§ The respective examples are probably from the same inscription.

·    Hamann-WSD.p22 lists twelve compounds with baah with the meaning “head”, “chief”, “main”, “principle” (based on EB1). Houston-ACMB and comment by Boot give some others.

·    The following sources have additional information on Baah <X> and other titles (re-arranged into alphabetical order with orthography slightly adjusted to standardize across all three and the rest of the CMGG:

o Foias-AMPD.p117-123: Aj k’uhuun, Anaab, Baah Sajal, Baah Ajaw, Baah Pakal, Baah Te’, Baah Took’, Baah Tz’am, Chak Tok Wayaab, K’an Tok Wayaab, K’uhul Ajaw, Lakam, Sajal, Ti’ Sak Huun, Yajaw K’ahk’, [Late Postclassic] Batab, Halach Winik.

o Tremain-ASoDaI.p225-229: Aj k’uhuun, Baah Te’, Baah Tz’am, Ch’ajoom, Ch’ok, Lakam, Sajal.

o Martin-AMP.p69-95: Aj K’uhuun, Ajaw, [Baah Ch’ok,] Baah Kab, Baah Tz’am, BBT, Kaloomte’, Lakam, Sajal, Ti’ (Sak) Huun, Yajaw K’ahk'.

o AT-YT2021-lecture24.t0:32:17-1:12:39 (end of lecture): 40 minutes covering most of the above titles, and a few more.

 

It’s convenient to have all titles in one spot; also to capture general information about where titles are discussed.

 

	Foias	Tremain	Martin	AT-YT2021-lecture24	Other
Aj k’uh				X
Aj k’uhuun	X	X	X	X
Ajaw			X	X
Anaab	X			X
Baah Al				X
Baah Ajaw	X		X
Baah Ch’ok			X	X
Baah Kab			X
Baah Kelem				X
Baah Pakal	X			X	LuinEtAl-UNMdSWCK.p659.pdfp.c2.para4
Baah Sajal	X			X
Baah Te’	X	X		X
Baah Took’	X			X
Baah Tz’am	X	X	X	X
BBT			X	X
Chak Ch’ok				X
Chak Ch’ok Kelem				X	Boot-ANSfC
Chak Xib				X
Chak Tok Wayaab	X
Ch’ajoom		X
Ch’ok		X		X
Ix K’uh				X
Kaloomte’			X	X
Kelem				X
K’an Tok Wayaab	X
K’uhul Ajaw	X		X	X
Lakam	X	X	X	X
Noh K’ab					AT-YT2021-lecture13
Sajal	X	X	X	X
Ti’ Sak Huun	X		X	X
Ti’ K’ahk’ Huun				X
Tz’eh K’ab				X	AT-YT2021-lecture13
Yajaw K’ahk’	X		X	X
Yajaw Te’				X

 

·    AT-E1168-lecture15.t0:41:41, Tokovinine explains that:

o In extended names, the titles go from personal to societal (roughly, from “specific”/“narrow” to “general”/“broad”).

o In most of the Maya world, the title comes after the name, but in Yucatec, the order is reversed.

·    MHD recognizes 5 uses of the gopher glyph (MHD.AP9):

o AP9a: logogram BAAH (transliterated bah) = “head”, “first”, “main”.

o AP9b: calendar day-name MULUK – the 9^th of the 20 day-names of the Tzolk’in calendar, when within a day-cartouche.

o AP9c: logogram BAAH (transliterated ba’h) = “gopher (Orthogeomys grandis)”.

o AP9d: logogram BAAH (transliterated baah) = “self”.

o AP9s: syllabogram ba.

While it is completely standard to distinguish the day-name MULUK from the syllabogram ba from the logogram BAAH, many other epigraphers don’t distinguish the three logogram usages (AP9a/bah/“head”, “first”, “main”;  AP9c/ba’h/“gopher”;  AP9d/baah/“self”) from one another.

·    MHD statistics (2025-04-27) – a search on “blcodes contains AP9” yields 903 hits, consisting of:

o AP9a: 777 hits for “head”, etc.

o AP9b: 13 hits for MULUK.

o AP9c: 15 hits for “gopher”.

o AP9d: 44 hits for “self”.

o AP9e: 44 hits for syllabogram ba.

o Uncertain (either AP9? or AP9/AP8): 11 hits.

·    These statistics show that:

o The day-name usage (AP9b) is quite minor (13/903 = about 1.4%) – MULUK is much more commonly written using the “mo/PET” or the “MULUK-u” variants (see MULUK for more information).

o The syllabogram usage (AP9e) is also quite minor (44/903 = about 4.9%) – ba is much more commonly written using the “abstract” / “boulder” variant (see ba for more information).

o By far the most common usage of the gopher glyph is as the logogram BAAH, in its three different meanings of “head” (AP9a), “gopher” (AP9c), “self” (AP9d): 777+15+44 = 836; 836/903 = about 93% of all gopher glyphs. But as a logogram:

§ The literal meaning of “gopher” is the least common of them all – 15/836 = about 1.8%. All such occurrences are in “names/titles” (rather than in the actual animal itself doing something or having something done to it), in the following categories:

·      Personal names: 7 hits.

·      Deity names: 5 hits.

·      Toponym/Dynastic name (=EG): 1 hit.

·      Unknown: 2 hits.

Examples: Sak Witzil Ba'h (two different lords, of ALC (Los Alacranes) and BVC (Buenavista del Cayo?)); K'an Ba'h; (K'an) Ba'h? Ch'o'j?; Ba'h Maax; Balun Ba'h?; K'inich Ba'h; Chak Ba'h. They are almost exclusively on ceramics (12 hits) with very few on monuments (3 hits).

§ Far more common (overwhelmingly so, 777+44 = 821; 821/836 = about 98% of its “logogram” usage) is as a rebus to write the (near) homonyms “head” or “self”.

o However, the split which MHD makes in the semantics is not the one I would have expected.

§ What I would have expected was a “literal” meaning of “head” vs. a “metaphorical” meaning of “image”:

·      “Literal” – AP9a/“head” :

o    tu’ baah (from ti’ u baah = “on(to) the head of”, in the very common “coronation ritual” k’ahljiiy sak huun tu’ baah = “(since) the (white) headband was presented/bound on(to) the head of <ruler name>”, or

o    baah <title> = “head <title>”, in a whole lot of titles where the baah indicates the most senior member of that title, e.g. baah ch’ok = “head youth” / “crown prince”; baah chehb = “head painter”; baah te’ = “head spear”, a senior warrior rank; etc.

·      “Metaphorical” – AP9d/“self”:

o    ubaah = “(it is the) image of”, or

o    ubaahilaan <god-name> = “(it is the) image in impersonation of <god-name>”, “it is the personification of <god-name>”.

§ Instead, what MHD gives (in the actual transliterations / coding in Classic – Blocks) is a split between:

·      AP9d = tu baah: 44 hits

vs.

·      AP9a = everything else (ubaah, ubaahilaan, baah tuun, baah te’, etc).

Not only that, but tu’ baah isn’t translated as “on(to) the head of”, but instead just as “on”. In other words, it seems to have become a “preposition plus fossilized possessed noun phrase” functioning as a preposition (in a similar way to how yita(a)j is an apparently verbal construct which has been fossilized as a sort of preposition “with”, or ukabjiiy as “by”). I’m unaware of the reasoning behind both the translation “on” and the split between the “on-meaning” and everything else.