Huitzillan (Mdz21v)

Huitzillan (Mdz21v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Huitzillan has two components, a hummingbird (huitzilin) and two front teeth (tlantli}, the latter providing the phonetic value for the locative suffix -tlan (by, among), which changes to -lan before another "l". The bird is standing on the teeth, which are two white, front, upper teeth with red gums. The bird is a two-tone green. Its short wings, are lifted and its yellow beak is open. It is shown in profile, looking to the viewer's right. The single visible eye is open.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This particular glyph for Huitzilan makes the locative suffix visible, but the other one in the collection does not. So, this one is a compound, and the other is a simplex glyph. It just goes to show that the locative suffix is an optional visual element.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

huiçilan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzillan, pueblo

Gloss 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

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

vertical, upright

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

hummingbirds, birds, colibríes, pájaros, teeth, dientes

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitzil(in), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilin
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan, by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Hummingbird Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"By the Hummingbirds" (Whittaker, 2021, 101); "Where There Are Many Hummingbirds" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 188)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

HUITZIL-lan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"El Lugar del Colibrí"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 21 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 53 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).