Cuauhpanoayan (Mdz10r)

Cuauhpanoayan (Mdz10r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Cuauhpanoayan includes three principal elements, a tree, a river, and a set of footprints. One consists of a tree [from cuahuitl) and providing the stem "cuauh"). In this bird's eye view, the tree or tree trunk is lying on its side, creating a bridge for crossing over {panoa) the water below. Three alternating footprints appear on the tree trunk to show the motion of crossing. The locative suffix -yan is not visible, but it may be represented semantically by the landscape features of the compound. The tree has the usual terracotta-colored bark and two-tone green foliage. The water is a typical turquoise blue with black lines of current (two of them especially thick down the middle), plus white turbinate shells and white droplets/beads splashing off the flow.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The footprints going over the make-shift bridge provide a suggestion of the verb, panoa. The locative suffix -yan is one that attaches to verbs and indicates customary action. [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript.] So, it would be a place where the the crossing over (on the wooden bridge) would occur customarily. In fact, Tezozomoc (1598) refers to the bridge at Cuauhpanoayan. (See: Gran Diccionario del Náhuatl, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/cuauhpanoayan/174842.]

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tetepotztoca, totoco, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

quauhpanoayan puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Cuauhpanoayan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Writing Features: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

bridges, puentes, huellas de pie, footprints, river, río, Cuauhpanohuayan, Quauhpanoayan, Quauhpanohuayan

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

"Wooden Bridge" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Place Where the Water is Crossed by a Wooden Bridge" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 201)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"La Puente de Madera" (donde la gente cruza regularmente)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 30 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).