Alahuiztlan (Mdz37r)

Frances Karttunen interprets the key graphic elements as water [ā-] and a downward direction [alāhua]. These graphics give phonetic clues to the relevant morpheme: alāhuiz- (slipperiness, from alāhua, "to slip, slide"). Matthew T. McDavitt (J.D.) suggests an unattested noun, alahuiztli, which would mean "landslide," and the place name would then be next to or "Below the Landslide." He sees the arm as pushing and the footprint as "temoc" (to descend) resulting in the arm ideographically pushing down (the land). [Personal communication, 12/28/2022.]

The beginning of the place name, "Ala," is also tempting to read as a Spanish loanword for "to the." This would combine well with "south" (despite the slight variation between huitztlan and huiztlan). We do have attestations of the incorporation of "ala" in loans that entered Nahuatl from Spanish, such as "alahuerta," for orchard or kitchen gardens, with the motion incorporated into the noun but only implied.

What is actually pictured for this glyph might suggest, alternatively, a reading of Amatlan ("a" from atl), water, "ma" from maitl), hand or arm, and "-tlan" the locative suffix, whose phonetic representation comes from tlantli), teeth. We do have other glyphs indicating Amatlan, however, and these much more efficiently use the glyph for paper, amatl). Finally, a reading of Amatlan would leave out the footprint element.

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tetepotztoca, totoco, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.