Chachalaca (MH837v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chachalaca (“He Chatters Like a Bird” or “He Gossips”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows the head of a man in profile, facing the viewer’s right. His mouth is open, and his upper teeth are visible. Four speech scrolls come out in a strong downward direction, with the tips curling up. These are a reference to the verb, chachalaca (to chatter like a bird or to gossip), which is the person’s name.
Stephanie Wood
Chalan is a similar name (“Talkative Person”) with similar visual elements (see below).
Stephanie Wood
juā chachalacā
Juan Chachalaca
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
charlar, parlotear, chismear, nombres de hombres
chachalaca, to chatter like a bird or to gossip, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chachalaca-0
Parlotea Como Un Pájaro, o Chismea
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 837v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=749&st=image.
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).
