Cuitlahuac (Mdz20v)

Cuitlahuac (Mdz20v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cuitlahuac features cuitlatl (excrement or excretion) dropping into a container with water (atl), although the "a" sound is already included in the stem for cuitlatl). The water is painted turquoise blue. It has wavy black lines of varying thicknesses, probably intending currents or movement. Two white shells and a white water droplet/bead splash off the top of the water. The container has a yellow liner that curls at the right and left upper ends. The final -c (locative suffix) is not represented visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Some have wondered if the hua- (or -huah, if we show the glottal stop), which is a possessor suffix, cannot be what appears here, because that would require a -co locative, according to Frances Karttunen.

The form of water chosen for containment is usually the glyph for apantli (water channel, canal), which this container does resemble, but "apan" does not appear in the place name.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

cuitlahuac. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuitlahuac, 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:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Excretions (bodily, human or animal)

Names (places)

Shells

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

cross-sectioned object

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

trapezoidal

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

front to back

Keywords:

excretion, excresión, excretions, escresiones, water, shells, excremento, agua, conchas, caracoles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuitla(tl), excrement or excretion, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlatl
-hua- (possession, containment), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-c (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c
https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlahuac
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"On the Water Excrement" (?) (Frances Karttunen writes: "I have no alternative suggestion. But analysis involving the verb cuitlahuia: is unsound, because locative -c attaches to nouns, not verbs." [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Water Excrement" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 183)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 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).