Acaxochitla (Mdz30r)

Acaxochitla (Mdz30r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for the place name Acaxochitla (or, possibly Acaxochitlan) is a tuberous lobelia flower, ācaxōchitl), with an extra ācatl sign, in this case the reed-arrow, coming out of the top of the flower. The arrow is yellow with a brown eagle feather and a white down ball. The flower is red with many petals, a green sepal, and red roots. A small white tip protrudes from one of the petals. It is apparently a type of lobelia.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The extra ācatl underlines the reading where this flower has a name beginning with āca-. The word ācaxōchitl has two parts, ācatl), or reed, and xōchitl), flower. The flower is a bright red, somewhat reminiscent of the cardinal flower or the flower of the canna lily. This flower has somewhat more detail than the same flower that stands for the place name, Acaxochic. It is possible that the place name once ended in -tlān, but the gloss just gives -tla[h], "place where there is an abundance of." [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

acaxochitla. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Acaxochitla, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Flowers

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

brown

green (light)

purple (light)/lavender

red

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

roots are visible

vertical, upright

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

flowers, lobelias, tuberous plants, stems, roots, arrows, darts, feathers, eagles, down balls, reeds, tules, carrizos, plantas, flechas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ācaxōchi(tl), tuberous flower in the lobelia family, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acaxochitl
Acaxoch, a personal name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acaxoch
āca(tl), reed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl
xōchi(tl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
-tla[h] (locative suffix; place where thing is abundant), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tla-1

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Where There is Much Acaxochitl" (Same as Berdan and Anawalt.) [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There is Much Acaxochitl" (Berdan & Anawalt, v. 1, p. 168)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Donde Hay Mucha Acaxochitl (Flores de la Familia Lobelia)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 30 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 70 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).