Chilacachapan (Mdz37r)

Chilacachapan (Mdz37r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Chilacachapan has three prominent visual features. The first, on top, is a horizontal, red chile pepper (chilli) with a green stem, providing the phonetic start to the name ("Chil"). In the water canal (apantli), which is outlined in red and has turquoise-blue water with horizontal, wavy black lines of current (two especially thick black lines in the middle), and what appear to be three aquatic plants [perhaps chilacaxitl), green and with a starry shape. They look much like fairy moss, sometimes identified as "Azolla Caroliniana." The rendition of water in this glyphs does not have the droplets/beads and turbinate shells that are often splashing off the top of the waterway.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The -x- ending on the stem for chilacaxitl is different from the -ch ending of the root of Chilacachapan, but the sound is similar. We do also have a perfectly good name for the water channel here, (apantli), which provides the -apan ("in, at, or on the waters of") locative suffix to the place name.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

chilacachapā, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Chilacachapan, pueblo (Chilacachapa, Guerrero, today)

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:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

cross-sectioned object

pointed (see also spiky)

scalloped edges

trapezoidal

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

acuatic plants, plantas acuáticas, agua, canals, canales

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chil(li), chile pepper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilli
acaxi(tl), a watering trough or pond, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acaxitl
chilacaxi(tl), fairy moss, a small acuatic plant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilacaxitl
apan(tli), water channel or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
pan(tli), furrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pantli
-apan (locative suffix), on or at the waters of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Water of the Chilacaxtli" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 177)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"En el Agua de los Helechos Acuáticos"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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).