Coatl Imilpa (CQ)

Coatl Imilpa (CQ)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for a toponym or place name, Coatl Imilpa, has two elements. One is a snake or serpent (coatl) in profile view with a kink in its body and a protruding bifurcated tongue, a rattle, and one eye showing. The snake is inside of a black-line drawing of a rectangle, meant to indicate an agricultural parcel (milli).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The gloss indicates that the milli is possessed (given the "i" before "milpa"). The -pa prepositional suffix on milli says "toward," and if the final "n" is inadvertently omitted, it would be imilpan, "in his maize field." It is difficult to know which is meant. It seems early for the term milli appears to have evolved already to milpa, the word that has been taken into Spanish and is still prevalent today in Mexico. This milli pertains to the coatl, perhaps meaning a person named Coatl. Coatl was a very popular personal name in this region, probably owing to it being a day sign.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

couatl ymil
pa

Gloss Normalization: 

Coatl Imilpa (or Coatlimilpa, Coatlimilpan)

Gloss 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: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
possessive pronoun
preposition
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Tongue Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Randall Rodríguez

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
right angle(s)
rectangular
vertical, upright
boxed in
bifurcated
profile view
bird's eye view
facing upward
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

places, lugares, snakes, serpientes, cohuatl

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

coa(tl), snake/serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
mil(li), agricultural parcel, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/milli
-pa (prepositional suffix), toward, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pa-0
-pan (prepositional suffix), in or on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan
milpan, in the maize field, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/milpan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

P[ueblo] Coatl iMilpa[n] “In the Field of the Snakes.” Matthew T. McDavitt, “Placenames in the Codex Quetzalecatzin,” unpublished essay shared 2-21-2018.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

{En] la milpa del serpiente

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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: 

coatl (CQ)

coatl (CQ)

milpa (CQ)