atl (Mdz40r)

atl (Mdz40r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for a(tl) (water) has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Ahuahuatzinco. The phonetic "a" here is represented by two squirts of water, each one bifurcated and with a droplet and a turbinate shell at the ends. The water is painted turquoise blue, and a black line of current runs through the middle of the flows.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The "a" of atl) is possibly more phonetic than semantic in this glyph, meant to provide the reader with a clue as to the name of the tree, which begins with an "A." The water probably does not literally spray from the branches of the tree.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bifurcated
curving, curvy, curved
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

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

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 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).

Phonetic Reading (comment): 

ātl (Karttunen 1992, 13)

See Also: 

Ahuatzitzinco (Mdz40r)