·     No glyphs given in K&H, K&L, BMM9.

o Only TOK, 25EMC = S&Z give a logogram with this reading.

o MHD and Bonn also don’t appear to have a code assigned to such a mammal head with a trilobate ear.

·     Absence of known logogram from a real-life inscription (in publications prior to 2022, see end of these notes):

o It is not given as a logogram in EB, only as syllabogram-only spellings.

o It does not seem to have been assigned a code in MHD and Bonn:

§ Visual inspection of the entire list of examples in the MHD Catalog doesn’t reveal a suitable candidate.

§ Visual inspection of the entire list of examples in the Bonn list indicates that the only mammal head with a trilobate ear is 0753st, which is assigned the reading TAAK.

§ There is no logogram glossed as “coati” in MHD (not even one for chik, though there is one for tz’ik?).

§ A search on “blengl contains coati” returns 2 hits, but both of them are syllabogram-only spellings. There are more than just these two syllabogram-only spellings for tz’utz’ih / tz’uutz’, but the others don’t show up in the “blengl contains coati” search because they’re part of royal names, which are then just transliterated into English, not translated as “coati”.

·     S&Z:

o Gives the trilobate ear as canonical / distinguishing feature.

o States that there are many substitutions where the syllabograms spell tz’u-tz’u-hi.

o S&Z.p181.para1.l+3: The TZ’UTZ’IH glyph is clearly a portrait of the coati, whose characteristic trilobate ear helps to distinguish it from portraits of dogs and jaguars. Glyphs associated with the coati in such scenes often spell its name out phonetically, usually as tz’u-tz’i-(hi).

·     Do not confuse this with the visually similar CHIK. Both mean “coati”, and both logograms are a mammal head with a longish snout, but:

o TZ’UTZ’ has a trilobate ear (and no darkness).

o CHIK has a regular mammal ear (and darkness).

 

·     The meaning of tz’utz’ in modern Maya language (Erika Raven’s notes of EMC2019, Advanced Glyph Workshop):

 

REC pM	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
TEC	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
MAM	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
ACA	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
JAC	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
MOC	tz’utz’	‘pizote, andasolo (coati), tejón (Nasua narica)
CHU	tz’útz’	‘coati’ (Nasua narica)
CHU	tz’utz’	‘pizote’
TZO	tz’utz’un-chab	‘oso hormiguero’ (miereneter)
CHL	tz’utz’ub	‘tejón’ (badger (Meles meles) which is not found on the American Continent )

 

·     Memo (Guillermo) Kantun: In Mexican Spanish, tejón is the white-nosed coati (Nasua narica). Synonyms for the white-nosed coati: antón, coatí, coatí de nariz blanca, coati pizote, chico, chico-ataj, chiic , choluga, pizote, puerco espín de la tierra, tejón mexicano, tejon pizote; tejón rojo.

·     Do not confuse  tz’utz’ih / tz’uutz’ with chik which also means “coati”. They both are a mammal head, but tz’utz’ih / tz’uutz’ has a trilobate ear while chik has a regular “mammal ear”.

·     For the association of the word tz’utz’ih / tz’uutz’ with the mammal having a trilobate ear in the iconography, see  tz’utz’ih / tz’uutz’ in syllabogram spelling. [Sim: the evidence is overwhelming that tz’uutz’(ih) meant “coati” in Classic Maya – the only outstanding question is whether there was a logogram for this word.]

·     This question is adequately answered by Helmke&Vepretskii-RtRNoRIIIaVoC.p3.pdfp3.c2.para2-p7.pdfp7.para1. This paper gives four examples of the logogram, all four being in the name of the CRC “Ruler III” – Yajawte’ K’inich Tz’utz’ih. Interestingly, only the first of the four has the logogram in isolation as TZ’UTZ’IH. In the second example, it’s conflated with the preceding logogram K’INICH, and in the third and fourth examples, all of ya-AJAW-TE’-K’INICH-TZ’UTZ’IH are combined in one glyph-block, with all the characteristics of AJAW, TE’, K’INICH, and TZ’UTZ’IH conflated.

 

·     EB gives only syllabogram spellings for this word:

o Maya -> English: EB.p252.pdfp257.#17: tz’utz’ih “coati”; many other references to tz’utz’ih as meaning ‘coati’.

o English -> Maya:

§ EB.p180.pdfp185.#3.1: tz’utz’ih Figure 7b n. coati » tz’u-tz’i-hi > tz’utz’ih “coati”                                                     K8076.

§ EB.p180.pdfp185.#3.2:                                                » tz’u-tz’i > tz’utz’i[h]                                                                     K0927.

§ EB.p180.pdfp185.#3.3:                                                » K’AK’-ne tz’u-tz’i > k’ak’ ne[h] tz’utz’i[h] “fire-tailed coati” K0927.

·     Unusually, all four real-life examples appear to be references to actual (real or mythical) coatis, rather than being part of a ruler’s name/title.

o The two examples from EMC2021-AW-D3 (K1181 and K4116) refer to a k’ahk’ neh tz’utzih = “fire-tail(ed) coati”.

o K4548 and K8076 refer to a more general coati.

In all 4 cases, a mammal with a trilobate ear is depicted in the iconography.

·     Evidence that, iconographically speaking, a mammal with a trilobate ear is a coati (the trilobate part is on the upper side, “outside” the head) – adapted from information provided by Erika Raven (personal communication May 2022):

 

K-number	Detail	Transliteration
K1181		K’AHK’.<ne{h}/NEH> tz’u:tz’i{h}
K4116		K’AHK’.<ne{h}/NEH> tz’u:tz’i{h}
K4548		tz'u:tz'i{h}
K8076		tz’u.<tz’i:hi>

 

·     Sim: if many examples have spelling tz’u-tz’i, then it would have been believed that the final i is silent, and merely lengthens the first vowel, according to the Wichmann-Lacadena spelling rules; however, with the discovery of tz’u-tz’i-hi, it seems that the 2-syllabogram spelling is an underspelling with the -h left out, and so it should be tz’utz’ih. Unfortunately, the publication dates of the reference sources indicate the exact opposite. List of tz’utz’ih vs. tz’uutz by source and publication date:

 

Author	Reading	Year	Comment
S&Z	tz'utz'ih	2011	Logogram
SJ	tz'utz'ih	2013	Logogram & syllabogram spelling
TOK	tz'utz'ih	2017	Logogram
25EMC	tz'utz'ih	2020	Logogram
Law&Stuart-CM	tz’uutz’ih	2017	Syllabogram spelling
BMM9	tz’uutz’	2019	No logogram or syllabogram spelling, dictionary textual entry only
K&H	tz’uutz’	2020	No logogram or syllabogram spelling, dictionary textual entry only

 

·     The above line of reasoning is confirmed by Helmke&Vepretskii-RtRNoRIIIaVoC.p5.pdfp5.c2.fn4, which nevertheless argues for tz’uutz’ as also a valid reading: In one example (K8076) we see a supernatural scene wherein a coati is seated before a ruler in a palatial setting, and the glyphic caption between them can be transliterated as mi / o-na / pa-ta / AL-ji-ya / tz’u-tz’i-hi, and transcribed as mih o’n patan yalajiiy tz’utz’ih, for ‘not much tribute, said the coati’. The variant form tz’utz’ih, has been taken as canonical (Helmke and Nielsen 2009: 65-66, n. 14, Table 1), regarding the other forms written tz’u-tz’i essentially as underspellings. Yet, given that all other examples are written in this manner it may be that the lexeme was originally tz’uutz’, with the -ih suffix in this one instance serving as a type of agentive marker.