Cozamaloapan (Mdz46r)

Cozamaloapan (Mdz46r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Cozamaloapan ("On the Rainbow") consists of two main elements. One is an animal that could be a lynx (cozantli or a weasel (cozatli). The four-legged animal is shown in profile facing to our right. It is terracotta in color with the exception of a black band across its eyes. The other main element in this compound glyph is the cross-section of a trapezoid-shaped canal (apantli) with water. The outer support for the canal is a yellow construction. The water is the typical turquoise blue color with black bands of different thickness (with one especially thick line across the middle) to show currents or waves, plus a suggestion of white droplets/beads and turbinate shells splashing off the top.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Given the propensity for the letter “n” to drop or be intrusive, it is difficult to say whether this animal is a cozatli or a cozantli. Furthermore, the dictionaries are vague as to how to translate either word. However, the animal in this compound glyph has a black mask across his eyes. Images of weasels and ferrets show that both of these small animals can have a dark marking across the eyes and over the nose. This is not true of the lynx or snow leopard. Weasels do still exist in Mexico, but ferrets have died out. So, in the end, weasel is likely the answer.

In line with Clark (1938 2, 49; cited by Berdan and Anawalt), Frances Karttunen suggests that the animal has no semantic value in this place name. Rather, it is there to provide a phonetic clue for the reading of rainbow (acozamalotl or cozamalotl).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

coçamaloapā, puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Cozamaloapan, 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: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Movement
Names (places)
Shells
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
wavy
trapezoidal
profile view
cross-sectioned object
facing right
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

rainbows, comadrejas, linces, arcoirises

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

coza(tli), weasel or ferret, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozatli
cozan(tli), lynx, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozantli
cozamalo(tl), rainbow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozamalotl
acozamalo(tl), rainbow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acozamalotl
apan(tli), waterway or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
-apan (locative suffix) on or at the waters, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"At Rainbow Lake" or "At Rainbow Canal." [From an unpublished manuscript, "Critique of Glyph Catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt Edition of Codex Mendoza."]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Water of the Captive Weasels" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 180)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"Junto al Lago del Arcoíris" o "Junto al Canal del Arcoíris"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 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).

See Also: 

cozantli (Mdz46r)