Ecamalacotl (MH497r)

Ecamalacotl (MH497r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Ecamalacotl (perhaps "Whirlwind," here, attested as a man's name) consists of two rectangular banners on one or two posts, one upright and one down. It would seem that the flags are both flying outward, the top one toward the viewer's right and the bottom one toward the left, perhaps spinning around the central axis.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

As is often the case, the wind that would make the flags spin is represented by the "Eca-" at the start of the name. In early vocabularies, ecatl typically means air or breath, and ehecatl, with the reduplication, means wind. But even when ehecatl might be meant, it is abbreviated as ecatl. The remaining part of the name (-malacotl) is reminiscent of malacatl (a spindle, bobbin, spiral). The banners (panitl) do not play a phonetic role.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

pedro
ecamalacotl

Gloss Normalization:

Pedro Ecamalacotl

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:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Movement

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weather, Climate

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

vertical, upright

Keywords:

whirlwinds, torbellinos, flags, banners, banderas, girando, spinning, turning, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ecamalaco(tl), whirlwind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecamalacotl
pan(itl), banners, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

El Torbellino

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 497r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=73&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: