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

Alternative readings: TAYEL
Translation: Tayel (part of personal name)
Part of speech: Unknown

Logogram spellings of tay

                                                                                 

TOK.p19.r4.c3 = BMM9.p16.r3.c3                            MHD.MA3.1&2&3                                                               1720st

TAY?                     TAY                                                    -                                                                                              -

 

                                           

Polyukhovych                                                                 Martin & Tokovinine

CNC Panel 1 K6-L6                                                         NAR Stela 46 E4-F4

1.<TAY+<CHAN:ya{l?}>> a.<AJAW:TAK:ki>               ta.<TAY{el?}+CHAN> a.<AJAW:TAK:ki>

 

                                                                                                        

TIK Stela 31 B22-A23                                                                TIK Stela 31 M2-N2                                                        

<TAY:(Y)AL[CHAN]>.K’INICH YAX.<NUUN:AHIIN>               <TAY:(Y)AL:CHAN>.K’INICH YAX:NUUN:AHIIN    

 

                                                    

K955 C1                                        K1005 A5                                         K1302 C2

mayavase.com                            mayavase.com                               mayavase.com

ta.<<TAY+K’INICH:la?>               ta.<<TAY+K’INICH:la?>                  ta.<<TAY+K’INICH:la?>

 

·     No glyphs given in K&H, K&L, 25EMC.

·     TOK (2017) gives the pronunciation is TAY? but BMM9 (2019) gives it only as TAY (no question mark) – has the confidence in the reading increased in the intervening time?

·     Miscellaneous comments:

o Meaning unknown, found in rulers’ names, in particular as an additional name to the Tikal ruler Tayal Chan K’inich, Yax Nuun Ahiin.

o The pronunciation is known because there is a substitution with pure syllabogram spelling in the Hombre de Tikal C3-D3 (see syllabogram-only spelling below).

o K2573. The hieroglyphic text on the vase names Tayel Chan K'inich of Motul de San José with a female, likely his wife, from the Mutul dynasty (Tokovinine and Zender 2012: 50). ©Justin Kerr.

o Tokovinine-OLGaS.p23 is part of a slide deck presentation covering the history of Ik’a, which lists Tayel Chan K’inich (though the name is spelled only with syllabograms).

o Estrada-Belli&Tokovinine-CANCMD.p5.pdfp5.c1.l-1: There are at least two Classic Maya theonyms with TAY: Tayal/Tayel Chan K’inich and Juun Tayal Chan Ajawtaak, the latter being a common reference during period-ending ceremonies (Martin et al. 2017; Tokovinine and Zender 2012). [Sim:

§ The first reference is: MartinEtAl-LE46dN, which is a paper on NAR Stela 46 – E4-F4 are the relevant glyph-blocks.

§ The second reference is: Tokovinine&Zender-LoWW, which has 21 hits for “Tayel Chan K’inich”.

o https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Maya_rulers gives, for Motul de San José:

§ 701-c.710: Yichte K'inich I

§ c.700–725: Sak Muwaan

§ c.725–735: Tayel Chan K'inich

§ ?: Sihyaj K'awiil

§ c.742–755: Yajaw Teʼ Kʼinich (son of Sak Muwaan)

§ c.755–779: Lamaw Ek']

·     Features:

o Left hand viewed from the back of the hand, thumb pointing upwards and fingers outstretched to the left, with partitive disk in bottom right corner (same hand as AL = “child of mother”, “say”, “throw down”).

o The hand grasps a “JELLYFISH” element– this is recorded as an independent glyph with no known pronunciation in TOK.p16.r5.c3, now deciphered as ta in Looper&Polyukhovych-SICV.

o On the left, a slightly curved string of touching dots, decreasing in size as they go downwards.

·     More than 30 hits can be found in MHD using the search criterion “blcodes = MA3”, glossed as tayel:

o Of these hits, 10 of them occur on Maya vases.

o Almost all the vases and many of the non-vases show a torch to the left of a hand grasping a K’IN and with a reduced variant of ma on top of it.

o Whether these really are instances of a logogram TAY is an open question. They could also be read as ta-YAL-K’INICH:

§ The torch is ta.

§ The hand is a rebus for YAL.

§ The K’IN with a reduced ma on top of it is K’INICH.

§ The (optional) la at the bottom is the end phonetic complement of YAL.

o Alternatively, they are indeed all TAY, with:

§ An initial phonetic complement of a ta covering up the string of touching dots on the left.

§ The “K’IN with a reduced ma on top” = K’INICH overwriting the “folded” / “jellyfish” element.

o Both interpretations are possible, though it seems quite extreme to have all trace of the identifying characteristics of the TAY (i.e. the string of touching dots and the “folded” / “jellyfish” element) obliterated by phonetic complements and other words which follow.

·     Looper&Polyukhovych-SICV (2022) is a recent paper which proposes the reading ta for “JELLYFISH”. The implications for the more complex glyph (with the hand and the “tail of dots”) is unclear to me. The “JELLYFISH”-ta and the “torch”-ta would seem them to be playing the same role of initial phonetic complement. That leaves the hand and “tail of dots” to be TAY/TAYEL or the hand to be just YAL. All very unclear to me.

 

Syllabogram spellings of tay

Fahsen-ANECTfT.p4.pdfp4.fig4 (Ozaeta, Pinelo, Caal)

TIK Hombre de Tikal C3-D3-C4

<ta+YAL>:la <CHAN:na>.<K’IN:ni{ch}> YAX.<NUUN:AHIIN>

 

                    

Prager&Wagner-aPLX.p11.fig12 (Prager) = mayavase.com

K4996 U1-V1

ta.<ye:le> <CHAN:na>.K’INICH