Cuezallan (Mdz37r)

Cuezallan (Mdz37r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuezallan consists of two principal components. The scarlet macaw tail feathers (cuezalin) are the predominant feature. Four feathers are visible. The feathers are standing upright, with the tips at the top. These tips are turquoise blue, as they appear in some other glyphs. The two, upper, front teeth (tlantli) (white, but with red gums) are the phonetic indicator for the locative suffix, -tlan, place of, rather than -tla (or -tlah), place of abundance of.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

These precious feathers had an association with fire, and therefore the deity of fire, as well as the deity associated with death. See: Alfredo López Austin, Los mitos del tlacuache: caminos de la mitología mesoamericana (1996), 194. Note the flame (tletl), below on the right. Two other examples of cuezalin feathers also appear below, right.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

cueçalan pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuezallan, 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

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Death, decay, decomposition

Feathers

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiky

vertical, upright

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

feathers, birds, teeth, tie, atar, plumas, pájaros, dientes

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuezal(in), red macaw tail feathers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuezalin
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan, by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Scarlet Macaw Feather Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There Are Many Scarlet Macaw Feathers" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 182)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Lugar de las Plumas del Guacamayo Macao"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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).