Coatonal (MH640v)

Coatonal (MH640v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Coatonal ("Serpent-Tonal" or "Serpent Sun," here attested as a man's name) shows a coiled serpent with a rattler tail. The snake, in profile, looks toward the viewer's right. Its eye is open, its bifurcated tongue protrudes, and a fang also protrudes. Coming off the top and the bottom of the body of the serpent are rays, something like the Western representation of sun rays. Tonalli can mean sun, day, or it is an animating force associated with vibrance and movement.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The tonalli that is a solar animating force can take animal shapes, and here that may be the sense of the name--that a serpent is the shape the person would take.

A colonial land dispute involved a doña María Coatonal, who is mentioned in Five Centuries of Law and Politics in Central Mexico, eds. Ronald Spores and Ross Hassig (1984), 30. So this is a name that could be held by a man or a woman.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

couatonal

Gloss Normalization: 

Coatonal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Celestial Phenomena
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Tongue Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
shimmer, vibrance, shine with warmth & movement
bifurcated
profile view
facing right
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
outward (from inside out)
Keywords: 

culebras, víboras, serpientes, suns, days, soles, días, movimiento, snakes, nombres de hombres

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

coa(tl), serpent or snake, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
tonal(li), day, sun, or personal animating force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Serpiente Tonal

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 640v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=363&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).

Orthography: 
dropped "h"
intrusive "u"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

tonalli (MH565v)

Coatl (MH483v)