Atl Huelic (Mdz25r)

Atl Huelic (Mdz25r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Atl Huelic comprises the words for water (atl), noun, and delicious or good-tasting (huelic), an adjective. A man, shown only as a head, in profile, facing to the viewer's right, is drinking water (colored turquoise, with black lines of current (the one in the middle especially thick) and turbinate shells and droplets or local jade beads splashing off the stream). Supporting the interpretation that he is drinking it, and judging by the direction the droplets and shells fly off the water, it appears to flow into his mouth, rather than having him spew it out. The man's face is a terracotta color. His hair is dark purple (probably meaning black or brown). There is no locative suffix, or else the final (-c) of huelic doubles for that.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The implication may be that the man is drinking delicious or pleasing water. The result could be interpreted to be a place of sweet water, fresh water, pleasing water, in other words, drinkable/potable water. We know that he is male by his haircut and style (bangs, with the rest of the hair just below the ears). Frances Berdan and Patricia Anawalt trsnslate this place name as "On the Pleasant Potable Water," whereas Frances Karttunen gives, "Fresh Water." If the water is pleasing, this could be a tie-in with emotion; if delicious, sensory perception.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

atlhuelic-- puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Atl Huelic, 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
Syntax: 
adjective
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
phrase or sentence
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Emotions
Gender (male)
Names (places)
Sensory Perception
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
brown
orange/terracotta
purple
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
facing right
profile view
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
right to left
multidirectional
Keywords: 

water, delicious, sweet, fresh, pleasant, faces, shells, agua, caracoles, caras, delicioso

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
huelic, delicious or pleasing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huelic

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Fresh Water" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Pleasant Potable Water" (Berdan and Anawalt, vol. 1, p. 173)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Agua Dulce," o "El Agua Potable"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 25 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 60 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).

See Also: 

atl (Mdz25r)