·    The alternation chan vs. kan is often spoken about as the non-Yucatec vs. Yucatec pronunciations for “snake”.

·    It also applies to “sky” (and probably also “four”), but we see it most often in the polity KAAN (the “snake kingdom”), where they found it important to stress that it’s the k- pronunciation by adding a ka initial phonetic complement. Stressing this was less important for “sky” and “four” (and more awkward to write in the case of “four” in the bar-and-dot form, as bar-and-dot numbers are not logograms in the normal sense of the word, and are never provided with phonetic complements).

·    The na which is often written after CHAN is always just a phonetic complement, never an underspelling for -na{l} – when a -nal is intended, it will be written with the NAL (“corncob”); this applies both in the meaning of “place” as well as for the adjectival ending for “celestial” (confirmed by Dorota Bojkowska).

·    Variants (2) – a boulder outline divided into a top and bottom half by a horizontal band:

o A. Abstract / boulder outline – features:

§ Top half:

·      Bold walls and ceiling.

·      (Canonically,) two vertical non-touching bars from the ceiling to the floor:

o    Occasionally just a single bar.

o    When single, often slightly or very curved.

o    Occasionally, the two bars touch, forming a single vertical bar with a vertical line down the middle (T561a).

·      The space between the two vertical bars is (canonically) two crossed bands but can be:

o    Totally empty (T561b).

o    A single diagonal bar (subjectively, more often NE-to-SW than NW-to-SE, though these do also occur). It can be very slightly curved (NW-quadrant of the circle)).

o    One (optionally bold) rung of a bold ladder (the two vertical bands being the sides (=rails, stiles, stringers) of the ladder).

·      In the case of crossed bands:

o    (Subjectively,) the NE-to-SW band is more often above the NW-to-SE one, but it can also be the other way around.

o    The “underneath” (=”interrupted”) band is usually straight, but can also be slightly staggered (it doesn’t continue in a straight line after it reappears on the other side of the “above” band, but is in fact shifted slightly).

·      Yet more extreme (and uncommon) sub-variants are that:

o    The ladder is slightly slanted (K&L.p10.#2.3).

o    Neither sides nor the rung(s) are bold (K&L.p10.#2.2).

o    The diagonal bands don’t cross but instead meet at the bottom, forming a bold V (K&L.p10.#2.1), flanked by the vertical bars (K&L.p10.#2.1).

o    There are no double vertical bars, but instead a (bold) inverted U = the tops of the two bars don’t touch the ceiling, but instead bend towards one another and meet in the middle of the glyph (MHD.XH3a.1).

o    Many, many more, too numerous to list.

§ Middle:

·      The horizontal line or bar dividing the boulder outline into the top and bottom halves.

·      Hanging from the horizontal line or bar: (canonically,) 2 or 3 touching dots in the middle; occasionally no dots (K&L.p10.#2.1&2&3&6, MHD.XH3a.2), one dot (MHD.XH3a.3), four dots (not in the examples above).

§ Bottom:

·      Lipped-U.

·      Grass blades growing on the base of the U.

·      The floor of the lipped-U sometimes disappears (outside the bottom edge of the glyph), so that the grass-blades grow directly from the floor of the glyph (K&L.p10.#2.1&3&4).

A search in MHD on “blcodes contains XH3a” and “blmaya1 does not contain pa’” (2025-07-04, the second clause to filter out the split in the “sky”-glyph which can be caused by the PA’ = “split”) yields more than 1,200 hits. This makes it difficult to step through to gather statistics on the relative frequency of the variation in the elements.

o B. “Fringed” bird-head – features:

§ Headdress:

·      Top: “LEM”.

·      Left: Optionally with element sticking out left or cross-hatched oval forehead ornament.

·      Right: oval feather / o.

·      Bottom: “tassels” – optionally with each tassel ending in a tiny dot.

§ Beak: Optionally, a mouth tendril to the right.

§ Right side: optionally, an oval element, longer in the vertical axis, vaguely resembling a “LEM” with an internal ladder, or an AK’AB or a li.