Chapolicxitlan (Mdz8r)

Chapolicxitlan (Mdz8r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph represents a grasshopper foot (chapolicxitli). It is really a full leg, colored green, bent, and it has hairs on the lower part and texturing on the upper part.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The visual is a simplex glyph, but the term for grasshopper foot has two elements, chapolin (grasshopper) and icxitl) (foot). The hairs and the woven-like texturing on the grasshopper leg show how familiar the Nahua artist was with the insect. This open-access image of an American grasshopper from Wikipedia sustains these minute details that the artist gave to the grasshopper leg. Knowing as we do that grasshoppers are considered a food still in Mexico today (especially in Oaxaca), we can understand how the Nahuas had a close-up view of them and were able to discern the patterns on the leg.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

chapolycxitla.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Chapolicxitlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bent
dotted, granular, textured
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

chapolicxi(tl), grasshopper foot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapolicxitl
chapol(in), grasshopper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapolin
icxi(tl), foot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icxitl
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el pie del chapulin

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 8 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 26, 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).

See Also: 

chapolin (Mdz32r)