Acazacatla (Mdz50r)

Acazacatla (Mdz50r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Acazacatla (or Acazacatlan, if the final "n" was inadvertently dropped) has two principal elements, reeds (acatl) and grasses (zacatl). The reeds are a blue-green/turquoise and are superimposed in front of the yellow grasses, closer to the viewer. Both are vertical. There is a horizontal white rectangle at the base of the reeds.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Instead of two morphemes being intended, Frances Karttunen notes that this is one compound word, acazacatl (reed-grass). The locative suffix (-tla or -tlan) might not be pictured, or the location could be represented symbolically by the horizontal white base below the plants. Was the addition of a base like this a type of "grounding" that reflected European influence in the Nahua artistic style? Note the segmented white base of such reeds a the tolin (below, right).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

acaçacatla, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Acazacatla, pueblo [or Acazacatlan, depending upon whether the final n was inadvertently omitted]

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, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

front to back

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

grass, grasses, reed, reeds, canes, plant, plants, weeds, plantas, zacate, cañas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

aca(tl), reeds, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/catl
zaca(tl), grasses, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zacatl
acazaca(tl), reed-grass, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acazacatl
-tla or tlah(locative suffix), place where thing is abundant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Land Full of Reed Grass" (if Acazacatla) or "Reed Grass Place" (if Acazacatlan) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Land Full of Reed-Grass" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 167)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Tierra Con Mucha Caña-Zacate

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 50 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 110 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).