Ayotzintepec (Mdz46r)
This compound glyph for the place name Ayotzintepec consists of two elements. The first is either a turtle shell [standing for ayotl) or āyōtl), turtle] or a squash/gourd (ayotli). This element sits on top of hill or mountain (tepetl) or tepētl). The shell or squash is horizontal on the top of the hill. It is nearly oval in shape, but with cutouts for the neck and tail at either end. The object is yellow with the exception of two brown patches, curved, almost like parenthetical marks. The locative suffix (-c) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."
Stephanie Wood
Frances Berdan and Frances Karttunen both interpret the element above the hill as a turtle, and they agree on the translation (see the interpretation just below the image). It could also be a place where squash/gourds were grown. But so many towns would grow squash, that it hardly seems like a distinguishing feature. Turtles, on the other hand, are more rare. The two terms are both truncated in a similar way, producing the Ayo- at the start of this place name. The squash/gourd might properly have lines running across the exterior, rather than the two patches that have the appearance of a turtle shell. (See the squash with squash blossom below, right.) Karttunen, Berdan, and Anawalt agree that the diminutive -tzin (which refers to the smallness of the turtle, in this case) is not represented visually in this glyph.
Stephanie Wood
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
mountains, hills, turtles, montañas, cerros, tortugas
ayo(tl), turtle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/
ayo(tli), squash, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec
"On the Hill of the Little Turtle" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]
"On the Hill of the Little Turtle" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 174)
Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 of 188.
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).
