·     Sergei Vepretskii: tahn ch’een refers to being in a city in general, whereas tahn-ha’ is being at part of a place name, not necessarily a city.

·     Sometimes, instead of tahn ch’een <X>, an equivalent phrase tahn ha’ <X> – literally “in the centre of the water, [at] <X>” – occurs.

o This happens, for example at YAX, where tahn ha’ pa’ chan is found.

o The naïve initial assumption is to think that this is because YAX/Pa’-Chan is 3/4 surrounded by an enormous loop of the Usumacinta River, hence “in the middle of the water”.

o However, this phrase also occurs in connection with MTL/Ik’a.

o While MTL/Ik’a is close to the lake of Petén Itzá, it’s not actually on the shores of the lake, but actually 3 kilometres from it, and the water itself would probably not in any sense be visible “around” MTL/Ik’a (LuinEtAl-UNMdSWCK.p658.pdfp3.c1.para3: The Motul de San José archaeological site is located about 4 km from the current town of San José, Petén and 3 km from Lake Petén Itzá).

o MHD gives for YAX Lintel 25 U2 tahn ha’ pa-chan = “in the middle of the plaza 'water' of Pa'chan (Yaxchilan)” and this provides the clue to the meaning of the tahn ha’ phrase.

o There is a theory that the plazas of the Classic Maya cities were flooded with water during the rainy season and for this reason, the middle of the plaza was described as being “in the middle of the water”. So the phrase drifted a long way from its literal meaning, and can be used to designate a small part of the city, e.g. the middle of the plaza (of that city).