Chahuatencol (MH735v)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Chahuatencol (meaning to be determined) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a curling line (colli) coming from the lower lip (tentli) of the tribute payer himself. It rolls under. At the end, inside the curl, there are some small marks that could have an additional meaning, perhaps something to do with the Chahua- start to the name. Chahua can appear in a compound word and then have very different meanings from “mistress” or “concubine,” as it is sometimes translated.
Stephanie Wood
As the contextualizing image shows, two men with this name appear side by side. Perhaps they were brothers, both with a hare lip, or they both happened to wear the special chin strap (tencolli) of certain brave warriors. Finally, the scroll or volute coming out of the tribute payer’s mouth may have something to do with a type of speech. In another manuscript, song scrolls have special lines segmenting them, for instance. More research is obviously needed for understanding this glyph.
Stephanie Wood
domigo chavatencol
Domingo Chahuatencol
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
barbilla, labios, nombres de hombres
chahua, “someone in an irregular, non-legitimate relationship, someone likely to arouse jealousy”, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chahua
ten(tli), lip(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tentli
col(li), something bent or twisted, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colli
tecol, grandfather or ancestor, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecol
tencol(li), a special chin strap worn by the brave, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tencolli
posiblemente, Labio Leporino o Correa de Barbilla de Valor
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 735v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=549&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).