Acolnahuac (Mdz17v)

Acolnahuac (Mdz17v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

In this compound glyph for the place name Acolnahuac we have two principal elements. One is the arm with a left hand (reaching to the viewer's right) and a protruding bone that references the shoulder (acolli). The bone is white, and the arm and hand are colored terracotta. The other visual is a speech scroll emerging from lips imbedded in the arm. Speech or language involves the word nahuatl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Here, nahuatia (to give orders) or nahuatl) (speech or language) is not meant to refer literally to the language or sound, but to be a phonetic prompt for the locative suffix -nahuac, near to. Like the place name Cuauhnahuac, which refers to being near the trees or woods (cuahuitl), here, the reference to a shoulder would not be literal, but probably a phonetic clue pointing to a feature in the landscape, such as a bend in a river or a cove in a lake.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

acolnahuac. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Acolnahuac, 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

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

adverb

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

visible sound

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Landscape Features

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

orange/terracotta

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

bent

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

volute(s)

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

language, speech, sounds, scrolls, shoulder, bones, arms, hands, idiomas, lenguas, palabras, sonidos, volutas, hombros, huesos, brazos, manos, -nahuac locative
(flagged for presentation ++)

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

acol(li), a shoulder, or a bend, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acolli
coltic, curved, bent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coltic
-nahuac, near, next to, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahuac
nahua(tl), speech, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahuatl
nahua(tia), to give orders to someone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahuatia
-c (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Adjacent to the Water-Bend"? or "Adjacent to the Acolhuah"? Karttunen notes that the locative suffix -nāhuac means "close enough to be heard clearly." She also refers to the ācōl- as possibly meaning water-bend, even though it is visually represented by a shoulder (ahcōl-). She also interprets the mouth and speech scroll as standing for the verb, nāhuatiā. [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Near the Curve of the Water" (Whittaker, 2021, 68); "Beside the Shoulder" or "Beside the Acolhua" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 169)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

acol•nahua./NAHUAC

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Cerca de la Curva del Río(?)"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 17 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 45 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).