Atlan (Mdz53r)

Atlan (Mdz53r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound sign for the place name Atlan ("Near the Water") includes a canal or water channel (apantli) filled with water (atl). In the water are four lower, white teeth (tlantli), set in red gums. The teeth supply a visual for the phonetic locative suffix -tlan (near). The water is painted turquoise blue with wavy black lines (two especially thick ones toward the center), white droplets (or local jade beads chalchihuitl) and turbinate shells come off the top, and there is a yellow border.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Normally, the canal provides a phonetic "apan," but here it is just "a" from (atl). In the lower right one can see that sometimes apantli is just represented by water (normally read atl), and sometimes the apantli is used just for the sound "a." That said, the predominance is for the trapezoidally framed water to stand for apantli, and the blue running water to stand for atl.

As Karttunen has noted, the locative suffix is -tlan, not -tla or tlah, recognizing the glottal stop]. The latter would imply abundance, where as -tlan simply refers to a place, saying "near" or "by."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

atlan_ puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Atlan, 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: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Names (places)
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
cross-sectioned object
trapezoidal
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

water, teeth, shells, place, canals, agua, dientes, caracoles, canales

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
apan(tli), water channel, canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
tlan(tli)], tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Water Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"In the Water" (Whittaker, 2021, 69); "Place of Much Water" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 172)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Cerca del Agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 53 recto, https://codicemendoza.inah.gob.mx/inicio.php?lang=english

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: 

apantli (Mdz13r)

apantli (Mdz16r)

atl (Mdz4v)

atl (Mdz18r)