Cuahuitl Ixco (Mdz24v)

Cuahuitl Ixco (Mdz24v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuahuitl Ixco consists of two principal visual elements, an eye (red, black, and white, and tipped sideways), and a tree (cuahuitl). The generic tree has a leader and two branches, each with two-toned green foliage. It has terracotta-colored bark and four red curling roots. The eye (ixtli) provides the phonetic indicator that the locative suffix -ixco is intended.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

"On the surface" or "at the surface" of the tree(s) seems less likely than "in front of the tree(s)," and so Whittaker's interpretation is the most appealing, and "-ixco" can mean either.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quahuitlyxco. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuahuitlixco, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

roots are visible

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

tripartite

vertical, upright

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

front to back

Keywords:

trees, árboles, eyes, ojos, roots, raíces

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuahu(itl), tree(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
ix(tli), eye(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/
-ixco (locative suffix), on the surface of or in front of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixco

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"On the Surface of the Tree" (Karttunen seems to support the Berdan and Anawalt reading; she agrees that Ixco means "at the surface") [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"In Front of the Trees" [Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 105); "Quahuitl Yxco" = "On the Surface of the Tree" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 200)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

CUAHUITL•IXCO

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Delante de los Arboles

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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).