ecatl (MH607v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex for the noun, ecatl (air or breath), doubles as the simplex glyph (plus notation) for the calendrical personal name, Ce Ecatl (see below). This glyph consists of the head of a creature (perhaps a bird), shown in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. It has a large beak that is meant to resemble the buccal mask that is a blowing device worn by the divine force of the wind, Ehecatl. Is typical to have the gloss read ecatl when Ehecatl is meant, ignoring the reduplication of the first syllable.
Stephanie Wood
A great many glyphs in this collection start with Eca- when Ehecatl is expected, given the iconography. The gloss here gives "Ecatl," but the visuals suggest "Ehecatl." We are recognizing the possibility of an unintentional oral abbreviation of Eheca- to Eca-. But, if the shortening of the name is intentional, it may be a response to the edict of 1540 prohibiting the naming of Nahua children after deities that led to a favoring of Ecatl over Ehecatl, as a kind of disguise. See Norma Angélica Castilla Palma, "Las huellas del oficio y lo sagrado en los nombres nahuas de familias y barrios de Cholula," Dimensión Antropológica v. 65 (sept.-dic. 2015), 186.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
viento, aire
eheca(tl), wind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ehecatl
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 607v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=297st=image.
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).
