Etlan (Mdz44r)

Etlan (Mdz44r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph of a bean [etl stands also for the place name Etlan. The locative suffix -tlan is not shown visually. The bean is oval, horizontal, and colored black with a white spot at the top.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The interpretation is fairly simple: the place of the bean. The final "n" of the locative suffix simple means place, not a place with abundance of something, which Karttunen notes would be (-tla, or -tlah if we show the glottal stop).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Colors: 
black
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
horizontal
oval (see also leaf shaped)
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

e(tl), bean, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/etl
-tlan (locative suffix), place of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Bean Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There Are Many Beans" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 187)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Frijol"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)