Huitzitl (MH836v)

Huitzitl (MH836v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Huitzitl (perhaps "Hummingbird," and the name of a spirit guide to Huitzilopochtli) is attested here as a man's name. The glyph shows a long pointed thorn (huitztli, a near homophone) or the beak of a hummingbird protruding from a man's chin. This man’s head is shown in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. His visible cheek has something like a tattoo with intersecting vertical and horizontal lines.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Huitzitl, like huitzilin, means hummingbird. Perhaps the beak intentionally resembles a thorn (huitztli) as a way of providing some phonetic assurance that this person's name is huitztli. According to the Gran Diccionario Náhuatl, a Huitzitl was a spirit guide to the deity or divine force, Huitzilopochtli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

, anto. viçitl

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Huitzitl

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: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
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
Keywords: 

espinas birds, pájaros, colibrí, colibríes, nombres de hombres, deidades, fuerzas divinas, Huitzilopochtli

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

huitzi(tl), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Colibrí, o el nombre de un guía espirtual asociado con Huitzilopochtli

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 836v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=747&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: 
"ç" for z or tz
intrusive period
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Huitzitl (MH638r)

Huitzitl (MH811r)

Huitzitl Popoca (MH627r)