Huitzillan (Mdz24v)

Huitzillan (Mdz24v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph showing a hummingbird [huitzil(in)] also stands for the place name Huitzillan. The bird is a two-tone green, in profile, facing to the viewer's right. Its short wings are lifted and its yellow beak is open. The visible eye is open. The feet are yellow.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Unlike the other glyph in the Codex Mendoza that also represents Huitzilan, this one does not make the locative suffix (-tlan, place) visible. So, this one is a simplex and the other is a compound. It is interesting that the locative does not have to appear visually.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

huiçilan.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Huiitzillan, 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

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

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

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

green (dark)

green (light)

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

vertical, upright

Keywords:

hummingbirds, birds, colibríes, pájaros

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitzil(in), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilin
-tlan (locative suffix), 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"Hummingbird Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]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 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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)