chiucnahui (CQ)

chiucnahui (CQ)
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This notation for the number nine (chiucnahui) consists of nine ones or counters in the shape of circles. One grouping of five circles arranged in a horizontal row across the top has coloring (red, brown, and blue, but in no particular pattern). The other grouping of four ones or counters run in a vertical row, connecting with the horizontal five at a right angle. The top one may be painted white, while the others are left natural.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The two groupings of ones makes numerical sense. The word for nine in Nahuatl consists of a variation on the older root for five (here, "chiuc") plus four (-nahui). The result is an equation of five plus four, or nine. See the Nahuatl-language discussion of Libra, the ninth sign of the zodiac, in Lori Boornazian Diel, The Codex Mexicanus: A Guide to Life in Late-Sixteenth-Century New Spain (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018), 173. This spelling is suggestive of an early form (chicui-) that produced prefixes chic-, chiuc-, and chicu- that combined to make various numbers.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Quetzalecatzin, Codex (CQ)
Date of Manuscript: 

covers ruling men and women of Tecamachalco through 1593

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

southern Puebla state

Semantic Categories: 
numbers
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Numbers, Math
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Randall Rodríguez

Colors: 
brown
green (dark)
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
right angle(s)
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

nine, nueve, numbers, números

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

chiucnahui, nine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiucnahui

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

nueve

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Randall Rodríguez

Image Source: 

The Codex Quetzalecatzin, aka Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec, Codex Ehecatepec-Huitziltepec, or Charles Ratton Codex. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017590521/

Image Source, Rights: 

The Library of Congress, current custodian of this pictorial Mexican manuscript, hosts a digital version online. It is not copyright protected.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Chiucnahui Xochitl (CQ)

xochitl (CQ)