atl (Mdz20v)

atl (Mdz20v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for water (atl) has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Cuitlahuac. The water is in a yellow container which surrounds the water on three sides and has curling ends. It has black wavy lines and a turquoise-blue wash. The water has a white water droplet/bead between two white turbinate shells.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The water is contained ("hua") within a canal (apantli), but the canal only provides the sound "a" for water (atl), not the "apan" locative suffix for "on the water."

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

Syntax: 
locative (visual but silent)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
cross-sectioned object
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
symmetry
wavy
Keywords: 

waterways, canals

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
apan(tli), waterway or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 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 (Mdz18r)

atl (Mdz4v)

apantli (Mdz13r)

apantli (Mdz16r)

Cuitlahuac (Mdz20v)