Cihuayauh (MH875r)

Cihuayauh (MH875r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Cihuayauh (perhaps "Woman-Accompanied" or "Woman Combatant") is attested here as a man's name. The glyph shows the head of a man and a woman facing each other. Below these heads is a round war shield, the usual element for "-yao-" (from yaotl, combatant or enemy). Yao- and -yauh are near homophones, which raises the possibility of the name being "Woman Combatant" (Yaocihua). Or perhaps the woman accompanies the man, going along with him to the battlefield, which could have a similar meaning.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Lisardo Pérez Lugones ("La transformación glífica de YAOTL en la Matrícula de Huexotzinco," in La expresión de la cultura indígena en los códices del centro de México, eds. Juan José Batalla Rosado, Lisardo Pérez Lugones, and Miguel Ángel Ruz Barrio, 2021, 521) groups this glyph with five others that have glosses for Yaocihuatl, believing they are all related, which supports the reading "Woman Combatant" here. Interestingly, two in the group of six glyphs that he combines are men's names, and the other four were women's names. The gendering of names is worthy of further study.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

nicolas çivayāuh

Gloss Normalization: 

Nicolás Cihuayauh

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

women, mujeres, guerra, war, combatiente, nombres de hombres, nombres de mujeres

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

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 875r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=822&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: