Cuauhpanoayan (Mdz32r)

Cuauhpanoayan (Mdz32r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuauhpanoayan includes two principal elements. One consists of trees (from cuahuitl and providing the stem "cuauh"). In this bird's eye view, the trees or tree trunks are lying on their sides, creating a bridge for crossing over {involving the verb panoa) the water below. The locative suffix -yan is not visible, but it may be represented semantically by the landscape features of the compound. The trees have the usual terracotta-colored bark and two-tone green foliage. A thick and a thin black line run diagonally across each trunk. The water is a typical turquoise blue with wavy lines of current, plus two white turbinate shells and a white water droplet or bead splashing off the flow.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The black stripes (tlilcuahuitl) may be phonetic indicators that this sign is a tree (cuahuitl), something I discovered independently, but which has also been pointed out by Brígida von Mentz ("De árboles, raíces, y locativos en la iconografía del México antiguo," Tlalocan 15, 2008, 216–219). 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 [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.] So, this would be a place where the the crossing over would occur customarily.

In fact, Tezozomoc (1598) refers to the bridge at Cuauhpanoayan. See the Gran Diccionario del Náhuatl, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/cuauhpanoayan/174842.

Another compound glyph for Cuauhpanoayan appears on folio 10r. It shows footprints going over the wooden bridge.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quauhpanoayā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuauhpanoayan, 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

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

verb

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

crossing, cruzando, bridges, puentes, trees, árboles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuahui(tl), tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
panoa, to cross over (verb), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panoa
-yan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yan
tlilcuahui(tl), black stripe(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlilcuahuitl

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 32 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 74 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).