Calatlaxoxiuhco (Verg14r)

Calatlaxoxiuhco (Verg14r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Calatlaxoxiuhco (“At the Place of Green Frogs,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a building or house (calli) facing toward the viewer's right. Below the calli is a foot (providing the phonetic syllable, xo) in a sandal. A stream of water (atl) emerges from the calli. It has the typical, alternating shells and droplets or beads splashing off of it. To the right of the water is a pair of front teeth (tlantli), providing the locative for "place of frogs." The remaining element is a hand grabbing the water from the right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The grasping hand can represent the syllable "hua" in some cases. Perhaps this was the "hua" of xihua, which became "xiuh" before the added locative "co." The "-co" is not shown visually (unless the house doubles as a part of the place name and a semantic locative). A xihuacalco is mentioned in the Florentine Codex as a turquoise house.

This place name is broken in two on a website relating to Tepetlaoztoc, referring to the Codex Vergara: “1544: Fue presentado el Códice Vergara que trata del apeo y deslinde de los terrenos del barrio de San Jerónimo Chimalpa. Integrado por Callatla Xoxiuhco, Topotitla, Teocaltitla, Patlachiauca y Texcaltipac.” [See: https://mexico.pueblosamerica.com/i/tepetlaoxtoc-de-hidalgo/.]

The ”xoxiuh” is found in the account of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, referring to the ilhuicatl xoxiuhqui (“sky blue”), even though the word is really xoxouhqui, green, in most cases. Of course, green and blue are often seen as shades of the same color in Nahuatl. [See: Primo Feliciano Velázquez, La aparición de Santa María de Guadalupe, 1931, 163.]

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Vergara, Codex (Verg)
Date of Manuscript: 

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

near Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
hua (grasping hand)
locative (not visual, but represented semantically)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Color names
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
rectangular
right angle(s)
striped
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
5
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
multidirectional
Keywords: 

verde, lugar de ranas, casas, edificios, agua

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

calatla, place of frogs, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calatla
xoxouhqui, green, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xoxouhqui
cal(li), house, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli
xo-, foot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xo
tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En el Lugar Verde de las Ranas (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Vergara, folio 14r, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84528032/f35.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.” We would also appreciate a citation to the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/.

Historical Contextualizing Image: