Cuauhximalpan (Mdz5v)

Cuauhximalpan (Mdz5v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuauhximalpan contains two principal elements, a tree (cuahuitl) and the kindling (ximalli) that is being chopped with a hatchet (tlaximalli). The action also calls out the verb, xima, to saw or cut wood. The locative suffix, -pan, is not shown visually. The tree is fairly standard—given that it has a leader and two side branches, a terracotta-colored bark, and two-tone green foliage—with the exception that it is almost horizontal. A hatchet chops at the trunk, chipping (three) flakes of wood off it. The hatchet handle is terracotta-colored, too, likely being made of wood. The blade, almost triangular but with flared tips at the wide, chopping end, is a yellow color (suggesting metal), and it is tied onto the handle with a white or neutral colored tie (perhaps of leather).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Frances Karttunen mentions a verb, cuauhxima, to work wood, as the action being shown with the hatchet or ax. This alone does not explain the "l" in the place name, so I point to ximalli, wood chips or kindling, which are also pictured. Frances Berdan and Patricia Anawalt include in their analysis of this place name the noun, cuauhximalli, wood chips. Thus, they believe the place name refers to a place known for wood chips.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quauximalpā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuauhximalpan, pueblo (Cuajimalpa, today)

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

Syntax:

noun(s)

verb

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Leather, hides

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

tied, bound, or bundled

triangular

tripartite

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

left to right

Keywords:

wood, kindling, leña, madera, hachas, Quauhximalpan

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhximal(li), wood chips.
cuahui(tl), tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
xima, to cut or saw wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xima
ximal(li), kindling, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ximalli
cuauhxima, to work wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhxima
-pan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"On the Wood Chips" (apparently agreeing with Berdan) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Wood Chips" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 203)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Sobre el Montón de Leña"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 5 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 21 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).