Cuilol (Verg34r)

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph is a black-line drawing of the personal name Cuilol, attested here as man’s name. It shows what appear to be woven sticks (cuilotl) that may represent a gate (tlazacuilotl). If so, these are phonetic indicators. Above the woven sticks is a rubber (olli) ball with a piece missing, perhaps to distinguish it from a black bean. The ball provides a phonetic syllable (-ol-) for the ending of the name. While the gloss ends in -or, this may represent a substitution of “r” for “l,” two sounds that do overlap in Nahuatl. The letter “r” was not part of the Nahuatl alphabet, but once it was learned from Spanish, the substitution could occur. A simplex glyph for Martin Cuilo (given as Cuillo), showing just the woven sticks, also appears on folio 35 verso. The spelling of the name in that instance may cause doubt about whether this one here is indeed Cuilol. The compound that appears here repeats on folio 37 verso, once again being glossed as Cuilor.