Chalchihuitepequi (MH727v)

Chalchihuitepequi (MH727v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name, Chalchihuitepequi (perhaps “At Jade Mountain,” if the gloss intends Chalchiuhtepec), shows a frontal view of a building surrounding a mountain (tepetl) with a sign for jade (chalchihuitl) on top. The building tells the viewer that this is a place, a pueblo, and it doubles as a semantic visual for the locative suffix -c. The mountain is no longer the green bell-shaped tepetl sign of earlier times, such as one finds in the Codex Mendoza, but rather more like a landscape drawing of a hill or mountain, showing some European artistic influence. The jade sign is closer to the earlier one. It is a quincunx shape with a somewhat larger circle, a dot in the center, and four small circles evenly spaced around the outside perimeter. The has a beam-framed entrance, with upright beams on the sides and a lintel across the top. Small black squares appear beneath the upright beams.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The -tepequi ending that the gloss shows, suggests a possible Hispanizing influence, given that the locative suffix -tepec typically went to -tepeque when Hispanized. There is a town still today in the state of Morelos called Chalchiuhtepeque.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Turquoise or Jade
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
quincunx or quatrefoil
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
upward
multidirectional
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

chalchihui(tl), jade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchihuitl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchihuitl
-tepec (locative suffix), on or at the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En la Montaña del Jade

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 727v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=533&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

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).