Chalten (MH826v)

Chalten (MH826v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chalten (“Lips and Chin”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a vertical stone (tetl, which provides a phonetic indicator for the conclusion to the name). with its typical curling ends and diagonal stripes of opposing colors across the middle. This stone is also dotted, which is suggestive of sand (xalli), a near homophone for Chal-, and therefore a phonetic complement. This stone has a mouth (tentli, lips), which further reinforces the phonetic reading. The resulting name is like tenchalli (the lips and chin area of the head), whose root (tenchal) is the inverse of this name.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

If this name is not the inverse of Tenchal (“Lips and Chin”), perhaps it has something to do with the border (ten) of a jade stone (chalchihuitl or challi). Also, notice how the mouth in this stone echoes the mouth in the tree of Cuauhnahuac (below).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

santos chalte

Gloss Normalization: 

Santos Chalten

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Landscape Features
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
frontal view
striped
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
outward (from inside out)
Keywords: 

piedras, jades, arena, labios, mentones, nombres de hombres

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

xal(li), sand, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xalli
ten(tli), lips, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tentli
ten(tli), the edge, the border, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tentli
tenchal(li), lips and chin area, or beard, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenchalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Labios y Mentón

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 826v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=727&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).

Orthography: 
"ch" for x
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

camachalli (Mdz42r)

Cuauhnahuac (Mdz6r)