Cuaonte (MH566v)

Cuaonte (MH566v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Cuaonte (“Two Heads,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a man's head (cuaitl) in profile, looking to the viewer's right. Behind this head is attached a smaller head, which is just a smaller hair-covered circular object. The -onte part of the name seems refer to ontetl, the number two. But whether the translation, "Two Heads," is accurate is uncertain.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Cuaonte (Cuahunte, Cuahonte, etc.) is a last name that is still fairly well known in Mexico. The Forebears website counts over 300 examples of this surname, most of them in Mexico. If having "two heads" is not the sense of this name, then perhaps the elements of the glyph are meant to be phonetic indicators for some other name that remains undetected.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juā quaonte

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Cuaonte

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: 
numbers
personal name
phonetic possibilities
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Numbers, Math
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
profile view
facing right
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

freaks, monstruos, heads, cabezas, nombres de hombres

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

cua-, head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cua-2
onte(tl), two, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ontetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Dos Cabezas

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 566v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=212&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: