[This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide.]
CMGG entry for naah

Alternative readings: NAH
Translation: building, structure, house; first
Part of speech: Noun

Logogram spellings of naah

A black and white drawing of a bridge  Description automatically generated                                                                                                                 

TOK.p7.r1.c4                   BMM9.p10.r6.c2                                               JM.p177.#1             JM.p177.#2               JM.p177.#3                  JM.p178.#1

NAAH                                NAH                                                                     NAH                          NAH                           NAH                               NAH

 

A drawing of a faucet and a tap  Description automatically generated                               

K&L.p29.#4                                                                                                                          MC.p165.r1.c2.1&2&3

NAH                                                                                                                                      NAAH / na / NOJ?

 

                                                                                         

MHD.1G2a.1&2          MHD.1G2b.1&2&3               0004vb                    0004vl               0004vr            0004vt

NAAH                            NAAH                                      NAAH                      NAAH, na          NAAH, na        NAAH, na         

 

                            

PY5.1&2&3                                                                      0004vs                   0004vs

NAAH                                                                                NAAH                     NAAH

 

0004vc

NAAH

 

·    No glyphs given in K&H.

·    AT-YT2021-lecture17.t0:23:05-23:55: And very much like [in] present-day Mayan languages, the term “house” naah actually refers to something more than a single building. Like archaeologists... we usually call it [a] “patio-group” – so it’s a group of houses sharing a courtyard. In [the] present-day Ch’orti’-speaking area, a house will also include the courtyard in front it – so it would actually be the “edge of the house”: ti’ naah for the “mouth of the house”. […] So the palace at Sufricaya (where I work) is called “Three Platform House”, basically there are three platforms around the courtyard. The palace at Palenque – initially at least – was called the “Five Platform House” – presumably the enclosed space with some central buildings in the middle.

·    Variants (3):

o A. Reduced: “axe blade”.

§ MHD distinguishes between MHD.1G2a and MHD.1G2b, though the difference is not clear to me.

§ The difference isn’t a “left-pointing blade” vs. a “right-pointing blade” (which is the case for Bonn’s 0004vl vs. 0004vr.

o B. Head: “axe blade” + human-head:

§ The head can be below or to the right of the “axe blade”.

o C. Head-only: Just the human-head, without the “axe blade”.

·    MHD statistics (2024-05-17) – the reduced variant is much more common than the head variant. The head-only variant is probably very rare – MHD doesn’t even recognize such a variant, it’s only given by Bonn:

o Reduced (“axe blade”): 1G2a (290 hits) + 1G2b (230 hits) = 520 hits.

o Head (“axe blade” + human-head): PY5 = 28 hits.

o Head-only: no statistics available, as MHD doesn’t have a codepoint for it.

o MHD.1G2s is the “axe blade” as syllabogram na. That doesn’t have that much to do with the “axe blade” as logogram NAAH, but the statistics are vaguely of peripheral interest here: 1G2s = 35 hits, so much less common than the logogram reading.