Chiucnahui Calli (Mdz2r)

Chiucnahui Calli (Mdz2r)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph plus notation gives the solar year (xihuitl) date, Nine House (Chiucnahui Calli or Chiucnauhcalli), also rendered 9-House in some cases. It includes a notation of ones (five across the top and four more down from the upper right corner). The ones are simple circles, without dots or concentric circles inside them, as can be found in other date glyphs. At the center bottom of the black-line drawing box in which the glyph appears is a house or building (the calli). The building is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right. The entire box is painted over with turquoise, which serves as a phonetic indicator that this is a year, given that turquoise and year are homophones (xihuitl).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

A boxed-in date says this refers to a year. The turquoise wash over the date is a visual reminder and a phonetic indicator that these are dates, given that green and blue-green (xihuitl) is a homophone with the word for year (xihuitl). The presentation of the dots is something like a math equation, five plus four, and this also echoes the language, chiuc- (five) and nahui (four). While the stand-alone number for five is macuilli, the combining form (chico, chiuc, etc.) means "on one side," and it refers to having counted the fingers on one whole hand already and then adding fingers from the other hand, the other side. See our dictionary entries for chico and chiuc-.

Added 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: 
calendrics
year name
phonetic dimensions
numbers
homophony, rebus
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Numbers, Math
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
boxed in
circle, circular or rounded
facing right
profile view
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

houses, buildings, casas, edificios, números, numbers, xiuhpohualli, año, turquesa, xihuitl

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

chiucnahui, nine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiucnahui
cal(li), house or building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Nueve Casa

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 02 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 14 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).