Coatonal (MH643r)

Coatonal (MH643r)
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," attested her as a man's name) shows a snake, in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. Its eye is open, and its bifurcated tongue protrudes. Its lower body forms a coil, and the rattler tail cannot be seen. Coming off the bottom of the body of the serpent are three 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: 

anto. couātonal

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Coatonal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Celestial Phenomena
Gender (female)
Gender (male)
Religion (Indigenous)
Tongue Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

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

serpientes, días, energía animadora del sol, nombres de hombres

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

coa(tl), snake or serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
tonal(li), day, sun, solar 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 643r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=368&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: 

Coatonal (MH640v)

Coatl (MH483v)

tonalli (MH565v)