Coyolapan (Mdz44r)

Coyolapan (Mdz44r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Coyolapan has two principal features. One is the bell (coyolli), and the other is the cross-section of a canal (apantli), where the bell has been superimposed. This -apan provides the locative suffix that means on the water. The bell is vertical and has a yellow color. The canal or waterway is trapezoidal in shape, with turquoise blue water and black horizontal lines of movement or current. Splashing off the top of the water are shells and/or droplets/beads that are classic iconography for water. The waterway is reinforced on the bottom and sides with a thin yellow outline, and outside of that, a thicker red outline.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Frances Karttunen suggests a reading of "On Bell Lake." There is a contemporary Coyolapan in the state of Oaxaca, which, by association with other pueblos in the Codex, is probably the one. Berdan and Anawalt cite Michael Smith (1973, 50) as saying that this Coyolapan is a Mixtec town, and its original name was Saba Yucu. There is also a Coyolapa today in the state of Puebla. Perhaps the lakes associated with these place names had the shape of a bell.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

coyolapan. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Coyolapan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
adjective
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Metals, Minerals, Mining
Movement
Music, Song, Dance
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
wavy
trapezoidal
bell-shaped (upright)
cross-sectioned object
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

bells, canals, waterways, canales, campanas, campanillas, pinjantes

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

coyol(li), bell(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coyolli
apan(tli), canal(s) or waterway(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
-apan (locative suffix), on or at the waters of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"On Bell Lake" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Water of the Bell" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 181)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"En el Lago de la Campanilla"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).