Calli Imayan (Mdz10r)

Calli Imayan (Mdz10r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Calli Imayan (better known as Calimaya today) shows two houses or buildings (calli) that have been arranged in a row (ima(ti)). The buildings are facing to the viewer's left. The buildings are white with a terracotta color given to the t-shaped beams (both vertical and horizontal). The locative suffix (-yan) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

It is tempting to see the "Imayan" as a possessed noun, such as maítl (hand, arm; perhaps building extensions), plus a locative. But, the locative suffix -yan is one that attaches to verbs and indicates customary action. Karttunen wonders if the verb could be "ma," to hunt. But it may be imati. Daniel Brinton's translation of the verb imati, includes this one: "to prepare or arrange something skillfully." [See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary.] Berdan and Anawalt (The Codex Mendoza, 1992, v. 1, p. 175) also support this reading.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

cali ymayan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Calli Imayan, pueblo (Calimaya today)

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

day name

year name

place name

Syntax:

line connecting elements

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

person (third, singular)

verb

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Cleanliness, Orderliness, and their absence

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

orange/terracotta

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

houses, buildings, arrangements, in order, building extensions, Calli Imayan, casas, edificios, arreglos, extensiones de edificios, architecture, casas, edificios, arquitectura, poner en orden, -yan locative

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cal(li), house or building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli
ima(ti), to arrange skillfully, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/imati
-yan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

Frances Karttunen, who gives the orthographic rendering of this place name as: Calli Imāyān, writes: "I'm stumped. Grammatically it looks like a place where a house/houses customarily hunt. If calli can refer to a group of people who live together, then it would be ok." She is basing this on a reading of the verb as ma, "to go hunting." She says it cannot be a possessed maitl (hand) because -yan is a suffix that attaches to verbs. [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Place Where They Put Houses in Order" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 175)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Lugar Donde Ponen Casas en Orden"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 30 of 188.

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).