Chapolmaloyan (Mdz32r)

Chapolmaloyan (Mdz32r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This complex glyph for the place name Chapolmaloyan has two visual components, a grasshopper (chapolin) and, above that, a hand or arm (maitl). The grasshopper is painted in two tones of green. It is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right, its legs are dangling down. The (left) hand, on an arm that is bent at the elbow, is just above the grasshopper and about the same size as the insect. The skin of the hand/arm is terracotta in color. The locative suffix (-yan) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The hand/arm (maitl) can have a role in the phonetics of the place name, but here it stands for the verb "ma," to grab/take/capture. The -lo- is a passive tense indicator when attached to a verb, so this points to a verb action, as does the locative (-yan), which Karttunen recognizes as adding "customary action" to the verb. So, it would be a place where the catching of grasshoppers occurs regularly. We know from contemporary culture that grasshoppers are part of the Mesoamerican diet.

According to Gordon Whittaker, we should pay attention to the upright hand without an arm attached versus the more horizontal or diagonal arm, which can have readings other than maitl, such as the "ma" of capture, "ana" of grab, or "poloa" of destroy (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 104).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

chapolmoloyā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Chapolmaloyan, 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)

verb

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Names (places)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

green (dark)

green (light)

orange/terracotta

Shapes and Perspectives:

bent

facing right

profile view

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

grasshoppers, langostas, chapulines, capturar, cazar

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chapol(in), grasshopper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapolin
ma, to take or capture, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ma-0
ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
-lo- (passive tense indicator), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/lo
-yan (locative suffix that combines with a verb), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Place Where They Catch Grasshoppers" (apparently agreeing with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Place Where They Catch Grasshoppers" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 176)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 32 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 74 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).