Kinship Terms in Maya Inscriptions

DAVID STUART
PEABODY MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Stuart summarizes readings for eight relationship terms. Early on, Jones (1977) identified two of these in the inscriptions of Tikal. He observed that after the name of one ruler was a glyph which was followed the name of the previous ruler. The pattern was repeated in passages having to do with a succession of three ajaws. Sometimes a second relationship glyph was present, this one followed by a name bearing a feminine prefix. We now refer to these glyphs as 'child of father' and 'child of mother'. Relationship glyphs are identified primarily through structural analysis. In some instances context provides enough information to interpret the intended relationship, but often, the significance is clarified only when a phonetic reading associates it with a word in Mayan languages. However, kin terms and political titles are not necessarily equivalent across even closely related languages, and their semantic value frequently changes over time, yielding ambiguities as in the cases of yum and mam. Recent decipherment of related glyphs include Grube's (Schele 1992:217f) identification of T533 as nik or nich 'flower', and the 'capped Ajaw' T535 as 'flower/child of father' a metaphor preserved in modern Tzeltalan languages. Mathews (1988:209) recognized ya "BAT' na as a 'his mother' expression, though the word intended is not known. MacLeod (n.d.) suggested ch'ab' 'created one' for T712, the 'lancet glyph'. Other glyphs occurring between proper names, that are not kinship related, include ub'ak 'his prisoner' (Stuart 1985b),yichnnl 'in the company of (Schele and Freidel 19903457f) and the u KAB' hi ya which carries the sense of agency (Schele 1982:73, Schele and Grube 1994:17a-18). Martha J. Macri Hieroglyphic texts from monuments and codices often express relationships between named individuals. The structure of such references is usually simple: Person A (the subject of a passage) is the RELATION of Person B. The intervening link, always prefixed by the third person possessive pronoun 21 or its prevocalic yallomorph, is known as a relationship glyph. Many seem based on kinship terms, while others seem political or military in nature (Stuart 1984a, 1985b; Houston and Mathews 1985). We remain largely ignorant of the precise meaning of such relationships unless the hieroglyph involved can be deciphered phonetically. Provisional readings of relationship glyphs without linguistic confirmation can result in misleading translations. Several Mayan kinship terms have been identified in Precolumbian texts. In this paper I posit a few new decipherments of relationship glyphs that correlate with specific kinship terms in modern Mayan languages. These decipherments do not rely solely on analysis of context, where applicable meanings are various, but instead result from a consideration of phonetic components of the hieroglyphs. The readings proposed here refine our understanding of kinship references in the inscriptions, and constitute important data for considering question of historical linguistics and ancient Maya social and political structure. I should emphasize that a wider treatment of ancient Maya kinship systems and their sociological and political manifestations is well beyond the scope of the present study. For now I only wish to point out specific kinship terms as they appear in the hieroglyphic record. I refer readers to a recent interesting study by Hopkins (1984) of Classic Maya kinship systems as seen from epigraphic and enthnographic sources. I begin by reviewing kinship terms discussed in previous epigraphic studies.
Atan 'wife' (fig. 1) Lounsbury (1984:178-179) discusses a relationship glyph in the Dresden Codex that refers to goddesses who are depicted as sexual partners of male deities. Berlin (1965) noted the same glyph in inscriptions at Piedras Negras and Naranjo, and identified it as a designation for the wives of rulers of those sites. The 'wife' glyph has been treated extensively in the epigraphic literature (see Fox and Justeson 1986), and here I shall only summarize some phonetic aspects of the decipherment. Lounsbury entertains a reading of y-atan

Figure 1. Atan 'wife'. (a) Two examples of the possessed form y-atan from the Dresden 14. (b) Scene of paired deities with expressed y-atan relationship, Dresden 21. (c) Y-atan Piedras Negras, Stela 8. 'wife of' for all these examples, and there is great cogency in the decipherment. The prefix TI26 is very likely syllabic ya, a combination of the prevocalic y- allomorph of the third-person possessive pronoun and a, the initial vowel of the root (Lounsbury 1984:179; Stuart 1985a, 1988; Bricker 1986:63-76). Lounsbury and others, however, feel TI26 may not be phonetically restricted to a single vowel (Justeson 1984:325). The restriction seems real nevertheless, and some new evidence for a separate yi sign is discussed below. The second element of the glyph is T552 or, in occasional examples, T565. As Lounsbury notes (1984:179), ta seems the best reading for both signs.' The last sign of the glyph is na, together yielding ya-ta-na for y-atan, 'wife of'. Fox and Justeson (1986:12) suggest that the Ch'olan cognate ihtan 'man's sister' is equally applicable to the glyph in question, which they read as ih-tan-na. I am hesitant to accept this for two reasons: (1) evidence for TI26 as ih in initial position is minimal at best, and (2) I would expect this, like other relationship glyphs, to be a possessed term.
A 1 'woman's child' (fig. 2)

In an important study that still remains unpublished, Schele et al. (n.d.) noted several glyphs or glyph sequences that link names of children to those of their parents. Among the

relationship glyphs they identify are the T1.535:23 "capped-ahau" glyph (placed between child and father), the T126.670 hand with associated signs (between child and mother), and the 1.I:T606:23 compound (usually between child and mother). The T126.670 variant of 'woman's child' seems securely deciphered as y-al, 'woman's child' (Stuart 1985a, 1987; Bricker 1986). In several cases this expression is formed by the simple combination ya-la, but more often the T670 hand occurs in addition to these as a principal element. The la sign may occur as an infix in the hand itself. When other elements occur in the hand-a scroll or a "Ben" sign-the la often moves to become a suffix. In all cases the phonetic reading y-a1 seems correct. The Dresden Codex displays one example of the T670 hand (with a "Ben" infix) that lacks both the ya and the la affixes. I believe it may simply be a logograph al, 'woman's child'. The glyph appears as part of a short caption above a scene showing the young goddess with two children. The presence of the term a1 therefore seems perfectly appropriate in this case. One interesting example of the supposed a 1 logograph appears on Monument 69 from Toninh. Here the hand carries a ba prefix, and follows the name glyph of the text's protagonist. I am reminded of the Tzotzil term ba '01,

composed of T61/62/65 and a jaguar tail sign seems to stand for a relationship between a child and father (Stuart 1985a). This was founded on a comparison of similar passages on Tikal, Stela 31 where the capped-ahau 'man's child' glyph and the jaguar tail compound occupied similar positions between two names. My conclusion that the jaguar tail compound may also express 'man's child' was supported by its pairing with a1 in a parentage statement written on a Late Classic painted vessel. Hopkins (personal communication 1986) has provided a phonetic decipherment for this compound. T61/62/65 is very likely the syllable yu, and the widespread word for 'tail' in Mayan, ne.3 When combined the result is yu-ne, y-une. Hopkins relates this to the diffused term une 'infant'. Kaufman and Norman (1984) provide the proto-Ch'olan gloss *une 'baby'. In Ch'orti' we find u 'nen 'son of male ego' (Wisdom 1940). In proto-Tzeltal-Tzotzil the term appears in the form *unin 'tender' (Kaufman 1972). All are loans into Lowland Mayan deriving from protoZoquean 'une 'child' (Justeson, et al., 1985:23). The glyph for y-une is rare. Examples appear at Tikal, Cophn, and Edzna, as well as on some portable objects of unknown provenance. The few examples all seem to link a child to the male parent, but I am not certain if this is a true restriction of the term in ancient times or an accident of surviving examples. In this light, in any case, it is interesting that in Ch'orti', u'nen shows a preference toward sons of the male parent. Also, Campbell (1988:320-321) has recently published sections of a colonial Libro de Baustismos in Coxoh, where u n i n is the relationship term between child and father and a1 links child and mother. This pattern is identical to hieroglyphic examples of the Classic period.
Figure 2. A1 'woman's child'. (a) Three Classic examples of the possessed form y-al. (b) The a1 hand sign above scene of goddess with children, from Dresden 23. (c) A name from Tonin6, Monument 69, shown in the first example with the title ba 'a1 'woman's first child', and in the second example with the common term ch'nk 'child, unripe'.

'woman's first child' (Laughlin 1988.1:161). Elsewhere in the same Tonin6 text this individual carries the "rodent-bone" title that is probably read ch'o-ko, ch'ok ' ~ h i l d ' . ~
Une 'infant'; 'man's child1(?)(fig. 3) In an earlier study I observed that a glyph

Yum 'father' (f ig 4) I am aware of one glyph that may provide the Yucatecan term yum 'father'. This occurs on a vessel from Tomb 19 at Rio Azul in the spelling u-yu-mu, for u-yum. In an earlier paper on the glyphs of this vessel (Stuart 1986), I entertained the possibility that proto-Ch'olan *yum 'boss' (Kaufman and Norman 1984) was the translation of this compound. Related to the Ch'olan gloss is Yucatec yum 'father', and it seems equally possible that the expressed relationship is a simple one of kinship rather than political or social status. Until more hieroglyphic examples of ytim are recognized, and the linguistic

Figure 3. Une 'infant; man's child(?)'. (a) Scribe's signature on a vessel from the Naranjo area. The yu-ne glyph
appears at R, linking the scribe's name with that of his father. Note the y-al'child of woman' at B ' , before the mother's name. @) An early example of yu-ne from Tikal, Stela 31 (block M).

affiliation of Rio Azul becomes known, it is difficult to understand the precise meaning of this u-yum relationship term.
Mum 'maternal grandfather' (fig. 5) Kelley (1976:177) notes the presence of u-mama in association with the new-year pages of the Dresden Codex. Here it always follows the presumed name of the opossum god as some

sort of attribute. Cogolludo (1971 I:255) tells us that Mam was the name of a deity who was worshipped during the Uayeb rites. The Mam deity may be closely allied with the Bacabs, the elderly gods who support the sky at the four cardinal points of earth (Kelley 1976:177). The word mum is 'maternal grandfather' in modern Yucatec Maya.

Figure 4. Yunz 'father' from a portion of the text painted on a ceramic vessel from Tomb 19 at Rio Azul. The compound u-yu-mu appears in the third medalion of the top row, linking two personal names.

F i ure 5 . Man1 'maternal grandfather, grandfather', referring to opossum deity on Dresden 28.

For the present discussion of kinship terms, I believe we must be cautious in consideration of the lnntn reference in the Dresden. Marn seems a widespread term for deities in the Maya area (Thompson 1950:133),and outside of Yucatec its meaning as a kinship term seems to vary somewhat (note proto-Ch'olan *mam 'grandson' in addition to 'grandfather'). We have reviewed five previously established phonetic decipherments of kinship terms in hieroglyphic texts. Four new readings may be considered for addition to this list. Itz'in 'younger sibling' and s u k u n 'elder sibling' (fig. 6) In an earlier paper on the syllabic reading yi and tz'i, among others, I suggested that the combination yi-tz'i-na or yi-tz'i-ni is equitable with y-itz'in 'his/her younger sibling' (Stuart 1987). The contexts of this rare compound were too vague to confirm the validity of this decipherment, but new evidence has since appeared to strengthen its merit. In the passage from the Palace Tablet here illustrated, mention is made of the accession of the Palenque ruler Chan Bahlum and another event involving his younger brother Kan Xul. The date is 8 Oc 3 Kayab, equivalent to the Long Count 9.12.11.12.10. The name of Chan Bahlum

appears at blocks K9-L9, but before this are glyphs that presumably refer to him in some manner. Of these, the first at L7 is su-ku-winikki, followed at K8 by the common "rodent-bone" glyphs4and then at L8 a title that is readable, in part, as ah pitz 'ballplayer' (Stuart 1987). ChanBahlum's proper name is at K9 and L9. Later in this passage, at L13 and K14, are the glyphs commonly used to refer to Kan Xu1 prior to his accession. Often these are incorporated into his full name phrase in later texts. The'final glyph at L14 is i - t z ' i - ~ i n i k . ~ The winik here recalls the su-ku-winik-ki glyph that accompanied the reference to Chan Bahlum, and I believe the two are indeed related. The two glyphs may be read as suk winik and itz' winik respectively, although the meanings of suk and itz' winik 'man', are obscure. If, however, we take these as truncated spellings for sukun winik and itz'in winik, the meanings become, respectively, 'elder brother' and 'younger b r ~ t h e r . ' ~ Wisdom (1940:274) notes Ch'orti' sak'un winik and ihtz'in winik as modem Ch'orti' terms for 'elder man sibling or cousin' and 'younger man sibling or cousin'. This would fit the present context perfectly, since Chan Bahlum is known to be the elder sibling of Kan Xu1 (Mathews and Schele 1974). The similar i t - tzi'i-winik combination appears on a small hieroglyphic panel published by Robicsek and Hales (1981: fig. 73). It follows T17.565:88 (yi-ta-hi ?), which in turn comes after the name "Smoke-Jaguar Paw," perhaps a ruler of Calakmul. Another name follows i-tz'i-winik in the space of two blocks, but it is not familiar to me. The term itz'in winik 'younger brother' appears also in a painted text of Najtunich cave, Guatemala. Here three names follow a sentence's protagonist, each introduced by the possible relationship glyph yi-ta-hi. The third name has i-tz'i-wi-winik-ki, no doubt the same ~ to the first of term we see at P a l e n q ~ e .Turning these names, we see another glyph incorporating winik. Ku before wi-winik-ki suggest that this may be related to sukun winik 'elder brother', although the initial sign does not seem to be T216 su. It resembles one-half of the so-called "double-comb" sign T630. Might T630 be a syllable that is phonologically similar to su, such as sa? Ichan 'mother's brother' (fig. 7) The short inscription of Lintel 58 from Yaxchilan may contain a relationship glyph

Figure 6. Its'in and sukun. (a) Possessed forms y-its'in, Caracol, Palenque and Najtunich (after Stuart 1987), (b) Palace Table, Palenque. Note sukun winik refers to Chan Bahlum, and its'in winik refers to Kan Xul. (c) Glyph for its'in winik from 'Site Q." (d) Passages from Najtunich, possibly naming three brothers. sakum winik accompanies the first name, itsin winik the third. The common initial glyph may be a general relationship term for 'sibling'.

Figure 7. Icllan 'mother'sbrother' (a) Example from Yaxchilan, Lintel 58. (b) Yaxchilan, Lintel 58, showing the ruler Shield Jaguar II and his uncle Chac-Skull. (c) A related passage from Yaxchilan, Lintel 9, naming Chac-Skull as the 'ahaw'suncle'.

T17.668:116, read yi-cha-ni.' The result is ichan, which appears exclusively in Ch'olan languages as 'maternal uncle'. Phonetically similar is Yucatec ichaln 'husband', but this meaning has little application to the uses of yi-cha-ni. Y-ichn appears on Lintel 58 at block C, after the name of an individual we may call "ChacSkull" (at B). He is also called ah uc bak 'He of Seven Captives' at Block A (Stuart 1984a). These glyphs presumably name the ichan in question, and refer to one of the two standing figures of the sculpted scene. The reading order of the complete text of Lintel 58 is difficult to

determine; the inscription continues with either column D or E. The glyphs of column D seem diminutive, as if they constitute a simple caption for the figure to the left. The placement of these three glyphs behind the lord's leg seems also to separate them from the others. I tentatively suggest, therefore, that the four glyphs of column E are to be read after the yi-cha-ni compound at C. These four blocks name Shield Jaguar 11, who we know from other Yaxchilan texts (see, for example, Stela 7) to be the son of Bird Jaguar IV and Lacy Chac-Skull. The Lintel 58 text seems to tell us that Chac-Skull, "He of

Seven Captives," was the ichan 'maternal uncle' of Shield Jaguar 11. Obviously Yucatec icham 'husband', is an unlikely reading in this context. The name Chac-Skull appears again in the text of Lintel 9 where it names the figure standing at left. The familiar "He of Seven Captives" closes the short name-caption of four blocks. The two intervening glyphs are respectively yi-cha-ni, and a-ha-ahaw. I read these as y-ichan ahaw 'the maternal uncle of the lord'. Ahaw in this instance may refer to the present heir, Shield Jaguar I1 (the second figure of Lintel 9 is Bird Jaguar IV). As we have already noted in passing, ChacSkull is also the name of the mother of Shield Jaguar 11. The only distinction is the presence of the na prefix, as is customary on female's names.9 The ichan decipherment, if correct, would lead us to believe that Chac-Skull and Lady Chac-Skull were siblings. The shared names may reflect kin relationship.

although rarely it may link a supernatural with a ruler. T23 na is an optional suffix to T606, and we might assume that it serves as a phonetic complement. The complete phonetic value of T606 has been elusive until recent observations by Stephen Houston (personal communication, 1987). He has called my attention to a unique variant of the relationship glyph in question where syllabic ta-na clearly replaces T606:23. Tan would then seem to be a likely reading for T606. If this phonetic reconstruction is correct, the term provided by this relationship glyph would be hun tan. In no linguistic source have I encountered hun tan as a literal kinship term, but I call attention to the following entries in the Motul dictionary (Martinez Hernandez 1929):
huntan lah; huntale servir a uno solo a tener cuidado de una sola cosa, o hazer esto con mucho cuidado y diligencia, embevenciendose en ello. Huntale a chantic missa a batabil va a misa assi con diligencia, ten mucho cuidado de tu oficio de cacique. Huntale Di os ten cuidado de servir a Dios. huntan 01 lo que se embevece en alguna cosa. Hunatan 01 ech huntan 01 tah embevecerse assis en algo, cuidar mucho o tener mucho cuidado en ello. huntan olal aquel cuidado y embevecimiento. huntan tah cuidar mucho de una cosa, tener o poner mucho cuidado diligencia en ella como embeveciendose en azerla y servir assi de a ui h i u x Dios ta huntanil a puczicaler obedeced a%ios de todo nuestro corazon. Huntan ma u halzal Juan estaba Juan embevecido en comer.

Figure 8. Huntan(?). (a) Two examples, the first showing the conventional spelling, the second exhibiting the syllabic spelling ta-na in place of T606. (b) An example of its use between the name of a deity and that of Chan Bahlum from the jamb of the Temple of the Foliated Cross at Palenque.

Huntan (fig. 8) Schele et al. (n.d.) have identified the compound T1.1:606:23 as a 'child-of-woman' relationship glyph. This certainly coincides with the dominant pattern: the glyph in most instances relates a child with its mother,

Might a related meaning have application to the u-hun-tan relationship glyph in Classic texts? The sense of 'diligence' or 'care' may apply to both contexts of the glyph: a child is the object of a mother's care in a similar sense that a supernatural may be the object of a ruler's devotion. Hun tan as a term of relationship may hold the sense of 'object of care or devotion'. Hun tan has no direct bearing on any kinship term, but this should not alarm us. T1.1:606:23 is assumed to mean 'child of mother' because of its frequent structural overlap with y-a1 'woman's child'. But, as noted earlier, there are exceptions to this pattern. The same glyph can express a relationship between gods and rulers. Unless phonetic evidence confirms the literal meaning 'child of mother', it would be rash to assume that the glyph represents a literal term of kinship. Four new decipherments have been outlined in this paper: sukun winik, itz'in winik, and ichan

Figure 9. Evidence for yi: in y-ikats 'his cargo, burden'. (a) Example of the spelling i-ka-tsi, and its appearance on a bundle from Yaxchilan, Lintel 1. (b) Jade from Burial 5 at Piedras Negras, showing yi-ka-tsi spelling. (c) Scene from unprovenanced vessel showing reptilian creature with cargo and y-ikats glyph in accompanying caption.

are all proper kinship terms, and the less secure reading hun tan seems functionally similar. Together with atan, al, une, and mum, we are left with eight hieroglyphs that can be correlated directly with known kinship terms in Mayan languages. Addendum: Observation on TI7 yi (figs9 a d 10) It is evident from the readings I have presented here that I am reluctant to accept the view that a single sign may represent the prevocalic allomorph of the u third-person possessive pronoun, y-. Rather, I suggest the existence of a set of yV s i p s defined by separate vowels, (ya, ye, yi, yo, yu). When prefixes, these signs incorporate the y- pronoun with the initial

vowel of the stem. I have outlined some evidence for this principle in an earlier paper (Stuart 1987), and new evidence is now at hand to continue a discussion of these signs. Several decipherments mentioned in this paper make use of the y i reading of T17/18. Apart from the possible possessed kinship terms so far mentioned, yi-tz'i-ni 'younger sibling of and yi-cha-ni 'maternal uncle of', this value can be supported by the following evidence: Yi occurs as the first sign in the combination yi-ka-tzi, which I consider to be the possessed form of i-ka-tzi, ikatz, meaning 'cargo, burden' in Greater Tzeltalan languages (so deciphered, independently, by Karl Taube [personal communication 19881 and Brian Stross (1988).

Figure 10. Evidence for yi: in y-ichnal 'with, in the company o f . (a) Various examples of the y-ichnal glyph. (b) Example from Aguateca, Stela 1. (c) Example from Piedras Negras, Stela 3.

As both Taube and Stross point out, i-ka-tzi labels the images of ritual bundles at Yaxchilan and elsewhere. The related form yi-ka-tzi appears as the first glyph in a short inscription carved into the back of a jade pendant from Burial 5 at Piedras Negras (Coe 1959). I find the precise meaning of y-ikatz in this context somewhat elusive; presumably it refers to the pendant as a 'burden'. One may speculate that the pendant may have been an offering within a sacred ritual bundle. Yi-ka-tzi may also appear in the hieroglyphic caption to a supernatural frog-like creature shown on a polychrome vessel of unknown provenance. The amphibian holds a large assortment of objects in a tumpline, and so the setting for the yi-ka-tzi seems fitting. The syllable pi is the first element of this caption, but I do not yet know its meaning. - T17/18 is also the initial sign in a common relationship compound I would read as yi-chinal. Here the two syllabic signs yi-chi precede logographic nal. The result is y-ichnal which I would relate to the Yucatec conjunction y-iknal 'with, in the company of'. In the inscriptions this functions much like any relationship glyph, and I illustrate two typical examples of its use:

In a passage from Stela 1 of Aquateca, discussing a "scattering" ritual on 9.15.10.0.4 yi-chi-nal follows the name and titles of Ruler 4 (Houston and Mathews 1985) and precedes a glyph composed of the heads of G1 of the Palenque Triad a n d God K, K'awil. Presumably, then, the ruler was 'with' these deities or 'in their company' during the time of his scattering performance. Similarly, at Piedras Negras yi-chi-nal links the names of Lady Katun Ahaw and her spouse, Ruler 3. The event of this passage from Stela 3 is na-w-ha, n a w a h 'was adorned' (Bricker 1986:156-158). I read the sentence as "Lady Katun Ahaw was adorned in the company of Ruler 3," or something very similar. NOTES
1 It is curious that T552 does not a pear more often in Classic inscriptions as an aRograph of T565 and other ta signs. It has been su ested that tan is a more correct reading for ~ 5 f (see f Justeson and Campbell 1984:342),but conclusive evidence for this remains deficient. 2 Stephen Houston, Nikolai Grube, and William Ringle have each independently suggested a reading ch'o-ko, ch'ok, 'child, unripe' for the

7 8

rodent-bone glyph. This is a compelling decipherment, since most occurrences of rodentbone seem to be associated with children or, at least, mentions of rulers before they assume office. The curved tail bears some resemblance to Landa's n sign. The same tail element is found in the name of a noblewoman on Naran'o, Stela 13 (64-65). Here it is prefixed by u and b ~ l o w e d in the subsequent block by a jaguar head, presumably balam. I would read the woman's name as na-u-ne-balam, with two possible translations: u-ne balam 'jaguar tail', or une balam 'infant jaguar' (following the customary female indicator na). T116, a sign of much different appearance, has customarily been equated with Landa's n. Some have suggested it represents a tail (Fox and Justeson 1984:37); hence it is phonetic n e according to many (see Justeson and Campbell 1984:324; Bricker 19867). In TI16 I see only a minimal likeness of a tail, and an exclusive ne value has very little support. In all instances n i seems equally possible, if not preferable. I should note, too, that the inscriptions at Copan exhibit a head variant of TI16 nl. This is one of the more amusing Maya signs, representin a human face with outrageously long nose hair Tan allusion to Mayan ni, hose'?). This occurrence of ch'ok with the name ChanBahlum, who was well into adulthood at the time of his accession, is somewhat puzzling. I suggest that Chan-Bahlum might be 'unripe' in a political sense; he never carries the ch'ok title after assumin the throne. 1 have siown elsewhere (Stuart 1990) that the prefix of this sign, representing a bird plucking the eye of a feline, is an allograph of T679, Landa's i . This equivalence may be seen, for example, by comparing Yaxchilan Lintel 22, A2 with Lintel 44, B7. This may seem a rash assumption, but precedent exists in other truncated spellings of disyllabic words. In addition to itz'in (i-tz'i) and sukun (suku), other truncations include hawante ha-wa-te 'wide dish' and the name K'awil (k'a-wi). It is strange that we find wi as a postfix towinikki; normally this phonetic complement appears in initial position. The cha sign here lacks the familiar fist-like appearance of the codical T566 (read cha by Fox and Justeson 1984:24-29), but I believe it is an earlier version of the same sign. This is suggested by its use before TI02 kl in a spelling of God B's name, Chaac, on a codex-style plate of unknown rovenance (see Schele and Miller 1986:pl. 1 2 5 This recalls a feature of modem Lacandon names: "By far the majority of women are Najq'uin or N a j b o r , adding the prefix N a j to what are otherwise men's names" (Baer and Merrifield 1971:3).