Atezcahuacan (Mdz12r)

Atezcahuacan (Mdz12r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Atezcahuacan includes two principal elements. One is the glyph for mirror (tezcatl), which is located in the middle of a pool of water (atezcatl). The water is swirling with both rounded whirlpools and rectangular ("step-fret") ones, including some thick black lines. The mirror is a concentric circle, red around the edge and black in the middle. The possessor (-hua-) is not shown visually, just as the locative suffix (-can) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

If we choose to take the tezcatl literally, we could say the place name is "At the Mirror Pond," but it could also be a reinforcing phonetic factor that was meant to tell us that this water was not just any body of water but an atezcatl, pool or pond. The Codex Mendoza glyph collection includes two different renderings of Atezcahuacan. See below, right.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

atezcahuacan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Atezcahuacan, 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

graphic syllepsis

Syntax:

noun(s)

possessive pronoun

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

black

blue (turquoise)

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

rectangular

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

spiral in rectangular form

symmetry

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inward (from outside in)

Keywords:

pools, ponds, puddles, water, mirror, reflection, piscinas, estanques, charcos, agua, espejo, reflexión

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tezca(tl), mirror, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezcatl
atezca(tl), pool or puddle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atezcatl
-hua- (possession, containment), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2
xicalcoliuhqui, step-fret coil, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xicalcoliuhqui

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Place That Has a Pool of Water" (having no disagreement with the Berdan and Anawalt interpretation) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There are Lagoons" (Gordon Whittaker, forthcoming essay, 2022); "Place That Has a Pool of Water" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 172)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Donde Hay Lagunas"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Gordon Whittaker

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 12 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 34 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).