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

Alternative readings: WAAJ
Translation: tamale (maize-based “bread”)
Part of speech: Noun

Logogram spellings of waj

[For glyph examples, see OHL = “Heart”.]

 

·     This is the same glyph as for OHL = “heart”.

·     Glyph not given in TOK as WAJ, but given as OHL – no entry for both waj and waaj.

·     S&Z give WAAJ instead of WAJ:

·     ZenderEtAl-SSw.p45.pdfp11.col2.para2.l+17: Classic Maya texts and iconography also indicate that human hearts were the principal food of the Sun God, but “the tamale was linked conceptually to the human heart” and “this organ or its symbolic substitutes may well have been the offering on the altar”.

·     For non-Spanish speakers: do not confuse atole with tamale. They are both maize-based foods, but atole is a liquid (or gruel) while tamale is a solid (bread-like).

·     Zender-CaCiAMF.t0:33:53-46:55 is a very long segment on tamales on ceramics and the Dresden and Madrid Codices, right down to the different verbs for eating different substances in Classic Maya and the modern Mayan languages.