Chiltecpintlan (Mdz42r)

Chiltecpintlan (Mdz42r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Chiltecpintlan has two prominent elements. One is a bowl of small chile peppers (chiltecpintli). Below that is a set of two front teeth [tlantli providing the phonetics for the locative suffix -tlan, near. The bowl has a terracotta color and a trapezoidal shape. There are five chiles visible, lying largely horizontal, and they are colored red with green stems.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Berdan and Anawalt cite Clark (1938, 2:46) as saying that these peppers are Capisicum microcarpum. They also note that Hernández (1959 1:138) compared these small chiles to mosquitoes for their color and small size. Karttunen accepts the chiltecpin- root, but reminds us that the suffix is -tlan, not -tla (or -tlah, if we indicate the glottal stop), and therefore abundance is not indicated. The final (-n) in -tlan is indicated with the line over the "a" at the end of the place name.

Today, the chiltecpintli is called the chiltepin in English and in Mexican Spanish. Sometimes they are called "bird's eye peppers" in English because of their tiny size. Their origin as a wild plant may be the southern U.S., near the border with Mexico.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

chitecpintlā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Chiltecpintlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

chiles, chiltepins, chiltepines

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chi(li), peppers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilli
chitecpin, very hot tiny peppers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiltecpin
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Chiltecpintli Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Place of Many Small Red Peppers" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 178)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"El Lugar del Chiltepin"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).