Atl Popoca (MH679r)

Atl Popoca (MH679r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Atl Popoca (or Atlpopoca, attested here as a man's name) shows swirling (i.e. moving) water (atl) with curls of smoke (indicating the verb to smoke, popoca) coming up from the swirl. The name might translate as “Smoking Water.”

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The movement of both smoke and water seems to have had an appeal in Nahua culture. This combination is also found in some of the glyphs for the personal name Tlachinol and teoatl tlachinolli (below). The latter also includes a serpent, which is possibly also appealing for its ability to coil. Flood and conflagration were serious threats to people living in urban areas on or around lakes.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

verb

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Gender (male)

Movement

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

agua, humo, movimiento, remolinos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

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

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Agua Humeante

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 678v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=437&st=image.

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography:

"th" for t, d, or gd

Historical Contextualizing Image: