Cuinton (MH509r)

Cuinton (MH509r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuinton (here, attested as a man's name) shows the head of a dog (izcuintli) in profile looking toward the viewer's left. Its coat is somewhat textured, its ears are up, and its mouth is open. The line indicating its nose has a little curve to it.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The diminutive suffix on the name (-ton) could be built into the relative size (visually) of this image, but without a comparison, that is difficult to assess. These dogs were small as a rule, nothing like the size of the dogs brought to Mesoamerica by the Europeans. People still today will refer to small children, affectionately, as izcuintli. The izcuintli is a day sign in the calendar, so it is not unusual to see variations on the word for names (as here, where the iz- has dropped away). According to twentieth-century ethnography, a nahualli could take the shape of a dog. See Los cuentos en náhuatl de Doña Luz Jiménez, recop. Fernando Horcasitas and Sarah O. de Ford (México, UNAM, 1979), 32–33.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juan
cuinton

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Cuinton

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Measurements, Quantities
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
Keywords: 

dogs, perros, perritos, diminutivo

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

izcuin(tli), dog, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itzcuintli
-ton(tli), diminutive suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tontli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Perrito

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 509r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=97&st=image

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: