Atlatlauhcan (Mdz7v)

This version of the place name Atlatlauhcan does have the waves of water splashing up with a shell and perhaps a droplet or precious stone (such as local jade, chalchihuitl). The one on folio 25 recto is without these added details. See below, right. The final analysis of this glyph is a challenge. The obvious reading is "Place of Red Water" (see Berdan and Anawalt), but it might also be that the color red was used because it provided the reduplication for atlauhtli (ravine or barranca, in Spanish). The result could be, just following the phonetics, "Place of Ravines." If this is Atlatlauhcan, Morelos, there are at least three ravines around it, according to the geography description in Wikipedia. If the name is about ravines, then this is another example where we should not take a glyph literally. Frances Karttunen suggests: "Where There Are Barrancas Here and There," with the "here and there" deriving from the reduplication of the beginning of the word for ravine (atlauhtli). She adds that she is assuming the reduplication would be ātlahtlauh- rather than ahātlauh-.