Cuauhxilotitlan (Mdz44r)

Cuauhxilotitlan (Mdz44r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuauhxilotitlan has two notable elements. One is the tree (cuahuitl), which produces the stem, cuauh-. It has a leader and one side branch, a terracotta colored bark, and foliage in two tones of green. The tree's roots are visible—curling and red. The bark also has two diagonal, parallel, black stripes, one thin and one thick. Where the branch on the right would normally be, there is a large ear of corn (xilotl), which has the stem -xilo-. This cob of maize has a green leafy base, a yellow ear, and a red tassel. There are two parallel hash marks on the cob, suggestive of two eyes.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The compound word cuauhxilotl), a name for a type of tree that yields a fruit that looks something like an ear of corn, and this is what various scholars see as the root for the place name.
The cob of corn has a very standard coloring, as can be compared against other ones below, right. Black stripes are, in Nahuatl, tlilcuahuitl, which may have been added to the trunk to help trigger the reading of cuauhuitl or the stem cuauh-.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quavxilotitlan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuauhxilotitlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Agriculture, Gardens, Stockraising

Corn, Maize

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

roots are visible

Keywords:

corn, cob, cobs, maize, red roots, tree, trees, maíz, elotes, raíces, árboles, fruitas tropicales, Quavxilotitlan, Quauhxilotitlan

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhxilo(tl), tropical tree with edible fruit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhxilotl
cuahui(tl), tree(s), woods, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
xilo(tl), green corn, ttps://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xilotl
-ti- (ligature), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ti
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Among the Cuauhxilotl Trees" (Karttunen apparently agrees with Berdan's analysis) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Among the Cuauhxilotl Trees" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, 203)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 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).