CMGG entry for kal      (This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide and Concordance.)

Translation: open; hack
Part of speech: Verb

Logogram spellings of kal

                                        

TOK.p36.r1.c2                          K&L.p37.pdfp37.#8                   

KAL                                             KAL                                               

 

                     

TOK.p36.r1.c3                               Greene            = Schele

                                                        PAL PT M2

KAL(.TE’)                                        <KAL:TE’>.wi

 

A black and white drawing of a dog  Description automatically generated                                                          A drawing of a head of a person  Description automatically generated                           

TOK.p29.r2.c2                  K&L.p37.#7.1&2&3&4&5 [K&L.p37.#7.4&5 = 25EMC.pdfp38.#4.4&3]                    BMM9.p14.r5.c4                    MHD.SR8.1&2

KAL                                     KAL                                                                                                                                        KAL                                            KAL

 

·     Variants (3):

o A. Stylized (not in K&H, in K&L, in TOK, not in BMM9, not in 25CMC):

§ KAWAK and a “SKULL”.

o B. Stylized (only in TOK as KAL.TE’).

§ KAWAK and TE’:

·       The interpretation of the component on the right (boulder outline with wood property marker) is slightly problematic.

·       TOK.p36.pdfp36.r1.c3 reads it as KAL + TE’ (in effect writing kaloomte’).

·       However, it might be better to view “B” just as a complete parallel to “A”. i.e. a two-component glyph writing just kal, in the sense that “stone coming into contact with wood” = “to hack”. The reason for proposing such an interpretation is the existence of glyph-blocks which have both this wood property marker and an additional “proper” TE’ logogram (see examples JM.p132.#1 and MC.p76.#3.1 under kaloomte’). Such examples suggest that the boulder with the wood property marker isn’t itself TE’, but merely a component in the logogram KAL.

o C. Head (in K&H as kaloomte’, in K&L, in TOK, not in BMM9, in 25EMC):

§ CHUWAAJ-like” head (scroll in a square eye with cruller underneath).

§ Wavy forehead ornament.

§ Large nose.

§ (Optional) mouth tendril going to the right.

§ (Optional) filed tooth(?) going to the left.

§ Hand-holding-axe on the entire right side.

·     The text-based parts of K&H, K&L, BMM9, 25EMC all give “to open”, “to hack” as the meaning of kal.

·     It occurs in two contexts:

o In the title Kaloomte’ – the agentive suffix -oom is added, giving “hacker” + te’ = “of trees/forests”.

o In a few royal names.

·     MHD statistics – a search on MHD (Classic – Blocks) “blcodes contains SR8” gives 186 hits, with the following breakup:

o Kaloomte’: 166 hits.

o Royal names – 20 hits:

§ Kaloom = “hacker”: 4 hits.

§ Some verbal form of kal: 16 hits:

·       kal: 4 hits.

·       kalan: 4 hits.

·       ukalaw: 8 hits.

I.e. an overwhelming majority of instances of kal occur as the title kaloomte’ (see kaloomte’). Furthermore, the few that aren’t kaloomte’ nevertheless occur only in names/titles, i.e. even when used as a verb like ukalaw, it occurs as part of a name/title rather than as the main verb in a sentence.

·     The PAL PT M2 example given above is one of the few occasions where kal actually functions as a main verb. AT-YT2021-lecture22.t0:19:53-23:28 transcribes this as KAL-TE’-wi è kalaaw te’ = “he wood-splintered” and explains that this is an antipassive form of the verb. [Sim: the syllabogram wi is used to write the antipassive inflection -Vw, where V is a vowel which matches the root vowel of the verb.]