Huitzilihuitl (MH771r)

Huitzilihuitl (MH771r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Huitzilihuitl is attested here as a man's name. It shows a hummingbird (huitzilin) head in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. It has a long beak. Below the bird's head are two feathers (ihuitl), hanging down, with the calamus pointing up.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

In another glyph for Huitzilihuitl, the feathers around the hummingbird's head are small, round, down feathers. See examples below.

Also, as Christopher Helmke and Jesper Nielsen ("Teotihuacan Writing," Visible Language) say, "One of the most widespread graphic principles of Mesoamerica is that of pars pro toto, wherein any larger entity or object can be referred to by its most diagnostic feature" (42). This seems to apply to the long, thin beak here.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

migue vitzinllivitl

Gloss Normalization:

Miguel Huitzilihuitl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Feathers

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

pointed (see also spiky)

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

plumas, feathers, colibríes, nombres de gobernantes, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Huitzilihuitl, famous name of a ruler, hummingbird feather, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilihuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Plumas de Colibrí

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 771r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=616&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).

Orthography:

"v" for u, uh, or hu

dropped "l"

intrusive "n"

Historical Contextualizing Image: