Acaxochitla (Mdz31r)

Acaxochitla (Mdz31r)
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 luxurious red petals, a turquoise blue tip, and a green sepal.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

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. 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 [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]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:

Acaxochitlan, 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:

blue (turquoise)

green (dark)

red

Keywords:

flowers, lobelias, tuberous plants

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

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)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 31 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 72 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).