Ahuitzotl (TR39r)

Ahuitzotl (TR39r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name Ahuitzotl (the Mexica ruler who preceded Motecuhzoma Xocoyotl) shows a small dark gray animal in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. Its eye is open and its teeth protrude. Its tail spirals. Coming off the back and tail of the animal are spurts of turquoise blue water, each spurt with a droplet or a turbinate shell at its tip.

There is disagreement around the translation of this glyph. Some reject ahuitzotl (amphibian marsupial or "water dog") and suggest it is a homonym for the compound word that combines atl + huitztli + yotl. Ahuitzotl, the famous man who bore this name, was a governing lord of Mexico from the late fifteenth until just after the start of the sixteenth century.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The contextualizing image shows the remark in Spanish, "cierto animal del agua," a certain water animal, which is meant as a translation of the name, Ahuitzotl. Alonso de Molina (as quoted in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary) suggests that the animal was like a small dog. Wikipedia suggests it is a marsupial, a water opossum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_opossum) with a prehensile tail.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Ahuitzotl.

Gloss Normalization: 

Ahuitzotl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)
Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Misc.
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
gray
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
curving, curvy, curved
facing right
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

animals, animales, water, agua, nombres, tlahtoani, tlatoani, tecuhtli, tecutli, teuctli

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

ahuitzo(tl), a certain water animal, like a little dog, or an amphibian marsupial, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ahuitzotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Animal del Agua (parecido al perro)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 39 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f103.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Ahuitzotl (Mdz13r)