Huehuetlan (Mdz42r)

Huehuetlan (Mdz42r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This is a simplex glyph for the place name Huehuetlan. It consists of the head of a wispy white-haired and wrinkled man. He may have some teeth missing. His face is in profile, looking to the viewer's right. His skin is terracotta-colored.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The white hair, wrinkles, and possibly missing teeth are all iconographic elements that convey to the reader that this is an elderly man (huehue). The locative suffix (-tlan) either does not appear or is implied in the showing of the man's teeth (tlantli).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

huehuetlā. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Huehuetlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

elder, old man, aging, anciano, envejecimiento

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

"Old Man Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Place of Many Old Men" or "Place of the Old God" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 188)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Hombre Viejo"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).

Phonetic Reading (comment): 

huēhueh (Karttunen, 1992, 84.)