Ayapan (MH679r)

Ayapan (MH679r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Ayapan (“Thin Cotton Flag”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a flag or banner (pamitl) made from a loosely woven, thin cotton blanket or cloak (ayatl). It is rectangular and attached to a stick. The flag flies toward the viewer’s right. The flag’s weave is very apparent, and it has a border of small squares. Another example of an ayatl appears below in the glyph Xiccayatl, which also shows an open weave.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Ayapan was a fairly common name. Other glyphs for this personal name appear below. It could be a place of origin. There is an Ayapan in the state of Tabasco, Mexico (see: Daniel Suslak, “Ayapan Echoes,” American Anthropologist, Nov. 2011), and there may be others. If Ayapan is not literally about a cotton flag, perhaps it refers to the medicinal plant, ayapana, so this could be the root of the name, and if so, the compound would be fully phonographic.

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
phonetic possibilities
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flags, banners
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
border (red, plain, or patterned)
facing right
hash marks (maize connection)
profile view
rectangular
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

fabrics, telas, textiles, flags, banners, flores, nombres de hombres

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

aya(tl), a thin cotton cloak, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ayatl
pam(itl), flag or banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pamitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Bandera de Algodón

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 679r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=438&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Ayapan (MH569r)

Ayapan (MH535v)

Xiccayatl (MH809r)