Cuahuitl (MH513r)

Cuahuitl (MH513r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name Cuahuitl covers its bases. It includes, on the left, a tree (cuahuitl) trunk, and on the right there is an eagle's (cuauhtli) head in profile facing toward the right. The tree trunk, which has stubs from branches that have been removed, is painted yellow. The eagle's head is white (like a bald eagle) with a yellow beak. Its beak is slightly open.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The combining form for both nouns, tree and eagle, is the same: cuauh-, although, as Gordon Whittaker (2021, 90) points out, the vowel length is different, with cuauh- for tree/wood and cuāuh- for eagle. So, these are near homophones in the stem form. In this case, the gloss says Cuahuitl, which would easily be represented by a glyph of a tree or some wood. But perhaps the artist was concerned that the reader might read it as ocotl (torch pine) or some other tree. So, he added the eagle to ensure a phonetic reading that would start cuauh-. If so, then the eagle is a phonetic complement which helps ensure the correct reading.

Why a Nahua man would have a name relating to tree or wood may have something to do with the significance of the metaphor, in tetl in cuahuitl (the stone, the wood), which the friars (such as Sahagún, Book 6) described as having an association with knowing secret things.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

antonio guahuitl

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Cuahuitl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
homophony, rebus
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
line connecting elements
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Feathers
Gender (male)
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Wood, wooden things
Colors: 
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
left to right
Keywords: 

trees, árboles, wood, madera, eagles, águilas

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

cuahui(tl), wood-tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl-1
cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

Erik Velásquez García (2019, 77) discusses KwAW-KwAW (without identifying if it is this example in particular) as a logogram-homophone in the manner of a rebus.

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 513r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=105&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: 
"g" for c, q, or x
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cuauhtzon (MH519r)

ocotl (TK2v)

cuauhxinqui (Mdz70r)

cuahuitl (Mdz24v)

cuahuitl (TR28r)

Cuahuitl (MH631v)

Cuahuitl (MH639v)

cuahuitl (CST13)