·    No glyphs given in K&H.

·    Features:

o A right hand with fingers and thumb stretched out.

o The fingers touching and parallel together and maximally distant from the thumb, both pointing downwards (and thereby making an inverted V shape).

o Nominally, a circle representing a ball, “under” the glyph (i.e., inside the inverted V), but often replaced by a ba end phonetic complement.

·    Attested (only) with the numbers 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 written in bar-and-dot notation to the left (Zender-GFHaS.p2.pdfp2.para3.l+1).

·    Zender-GFHaS (2004):

o This is the paper which first proposed the reading NAHB for this logogram, based on the substitution of na-ba as a pure syllabogram-only spelling (and also ba as a final phonetic complement of the logogram).

o This proposal is convincing and has now been completely accepted.

o Zender-GFHaS prefers the reading nahb.

o Zender-GFHaS.p3.pdfp3 gives the following cognates in the modern Mayan languages (definitions from further referenced works, and given in a mix of Spanish and English or both):

§ Ch’ol: -ñajb – numerical suffix for counting handspans.

§ Tzeltal: -nahb – measure from the thumb to the middle finger.

§ Yucatec: náab – handspan.

§ Mopan: naab – quarter-rod, measure from outstretched thumb to little finger (8-9 inches).

§ Itzaj: naab – quarter-rod, measure from outstretched thumb to little finger (8-9 inches).

·    I use NAB partly as a matter of convenience – for the ease of distinguishing it from NAHB = “lake”, “pond”, perhaps also partly influenced by the synharmonic spelling na-ba (and the Lacadena-Wichmann rules). The nahb reading is perhaps based on historical reconstruction.

·    EB1.p133.pdfp138.#3 (2009): nab (2) n. hand-span (certain hand-based measurement of game ball).

·    K&H.p112.pdfp117.#13 (2009): “handspan” used for counting dimensions – particularly the circumference of rubber balls used in the ballgame.

·    The three alternative pronunciations are from K&L.

·    Do not confuse NAB with the phonetically similar (in some readings identical) NAHB meaning “lake” or “pond”.

·    Do not confuse NAB with the visually similar ke:

o ke has the fingers and palm pointing (roughly) sideways – to the left or to the right.

o NAB has the fingers and palm pointing (roughly) downwards.

 

·    These three syllabogram-only spellings were used in Zender-GFHaS to show the substitution of na-ba for the logogram NAB., thereby “deciphering” the reading of the logogram.