atl (Mdz50r)

atl (Mdz50r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for water (atl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tlapacoyan. This is the reason that its parts are disconnected. Otherwise, it has the standard hallmarks of droplets and turbinate shells splashing off the streams and black lines of current to show the movement of the water.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This element seems to play a semantic role in the compound from which it was carved, although there are two a's in Tlapacoyan, so it could be phonetic. Here, as an element, however, we will just mark it as a logogram.

Added 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: 
calendrics
day name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Movement
Shells
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
Keywords: 

water, shells, agua, caracolillos, conchas

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

atl, water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

water

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 50 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 110 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: 

Tlapacoyan (Mdz50r)

Tlapacoyan (Mdz8r)

Teocuitlatlan (Mdz44r)