Apanecatl (MH504v)

Apanecatl (MH504v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name (or ethnic affiliation) Apanecatl (perhaps "Canal Person," or someone from a place called Apanco), is attested as a man's name or affiliation here. The name glyph includes two major elements a three-part stream of water (atl) with droplets and shells at the tips, and an upright, white, rectangular flag or banner (panitl) in a profile view, facing the viewer's right. The -ecatl part of the name (affiliation or ethnicity) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The banner serves a phonetic role, supplying the -pan- of apantli. The water alone could represent apantli, but the flag reinforces this particular reading for water.

There is a famous Apanecatl (also called Quetzalapanecatl) in the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca whose name glyph is a beautiful feathered headdress. [See: Gran Diccionario Náhuatl, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/apanecatl/40798.] Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary mentions that Apanecatl was a teomama, one who carried deities on his back. This name is still known today in Mexico. One web page suggests that the name means "risk taker" (https://www.howtopronounce.com/apanecatl). This translation remains unverified in early manuscripts.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

andres
apanecatl

Gloss Normalization: 

Andrés Apanecatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood and Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
facing right
profile view
rectangular
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
pan(itl), flag, banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panitl
apan(tli), waterway or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
-ca(tl) (affiliation), person from, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/catl
Apanecatl, a person's name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apanecatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Persona del Canal (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 504v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=88&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: