Cuetzpal (MH484r)

Cuetzpal (MH484r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for a person's name, Cuetzpal, means Lizard or Iguana. It is a bird's eye view of the outline shape of a lizard, drawn and filled in with black or brown. If not bird's eye, the lizard could also be interpreted to be climbing, upright or vertical. It is painted entirely black.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The historical contextualizing image shows that the man who had this name also had a baptismal name, Felipe. Gordon Whittaker (personal communication, April 2023) suggests that Quetzpal may be a dialectical variant for Cuetzpal. The cuezpalin was a calendrical day sign that some people took as a personal name. Lizards are also commonplace in the landscape of much of Mexico. Other manuscripts have turquoise-colored lizards, and the one in the Codex Magliabechiano has a protruding red tongue. This one may be painted black as a way of providing a clue to the name ending in -pal, which is short for the color black, and therefore may be serving as a phonetic indicator.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

quespal

Gloss Normalization: 

Cuetzpal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
day name
phonetic dimensions
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bird's eye view
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

lizards, lagartos, iguanas

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

Cuetzpal, a name https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetzpal.
Quetzpal, a name of a historical personage, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Quetzpal
cuetzpal(in), lizard, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetzpalin
pal(li), black clay or the color black, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/palli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el lagarto

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 484r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=47&st=image&r=-0.559,-....

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: 
See Also: 

cuetzpalin (CQ)

Cuetzpal (MH634r)

Cuetzpal (MH484r)