Chichiccuauhtla (Mdz32r)

Chichiccuauhtla (Mdz32r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph stands for the place name, Chichiccuauhtla (or possibly Chichicuauhtla, if the two c's elide). It features a representation of a dog (chichi), in profile, facing to the right, crouching or lying on the ground, and with a red tongue protruding. The dog is white with large black spots and a long tail. Its ears are erect and pointing forward, and some of its teeth are visible. Emerging from the back of the dog is a standard tree (cuahuitl), with a leader and two branches, two-tone green foliage at the end of each branch, terracotta-colored bark, a thick and a thin diagonal stripe across the trunk. The locative suffix (-tla, or -tlah, if we show the glottal stop) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

There is a tree called a chichiccuahuitl, that produces quinine, as described in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary. The Gran Diccionario Nahuatl spells it chichicuahuitl). The gloss supports a reading of chichic- (bitter), which Berdan and Anawalt recognize. The dog (chichi) is there to provide the phonetic information for the start of the name, Chichic-, making it a disyllabogram/phonogram. [See Gordon Whittaker, 2021, 222, for a list of similar disyllabograms.] The tree (cuahuitl) is a logogram for the second part of the name. The black stripes ([tlilcuahuitl) seem to provide the phonetic reassurance that this is a cuahuitl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

chichicquavtla. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Chichicuauhtla, pueblo (or Chichiccuauhtla)

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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

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

Health, Medicine

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Tongue Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

dogs, perros, perras, trees, árboles, bitter, amargo
(flagged for presentation ++)

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chichi, dog, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chichi
cuahui(tl), tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
chichiccuahui(tl)>, a medicinal tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chichiccuahuitl
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
tlilcuahui(tl), black stripe(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlilcuahuitl

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Where There Are Many Chichiquauhtla Trees" (agreeing with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There Are Many Chichiquauhtla Trees" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 177)

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).