Huitznahuatl (MH677r)

Huitznahuatl (MH677r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name or title, Huitznahuatl (something like mandón or alguacil in Spanish as shown in the Codex Mendoza, but it was also a famous name) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of three thorny (pointing to huitztli) branches from an agave plant. To the right of these branches is a curving line that gives the suggestion of a volute, possibly intending a phonetic indicator for the -nahuatl (language, speech) ending to the name. Also possible is that multiple thorns have been placed near (-nahuac) each other as a phonetic indicator.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

John Bierhorst (A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos, 1985, 143) says that Huitznahuatl was a "name or epithet of a god to whom slaves were sacrificed in Mexico." Other sources report that one of the ethnic groups that migrated from the Seven Caves came from a place called Huitznahuac, and there was a temple with this association in Mexico Tenochtitlan. Finally, Huitznahuatl was a high title, and it had an association with the South. The name was not inaccessible for tribute-paying men of humble means, such as found in the census of modern-day Morelos and in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (modern-day Puebla). See the Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information about Huitznahuac and Huitznahuatl, and see some examples of other glyphs, below, for making comparisons.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

phonetic possibilities

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Plants, Flora

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition, Languages

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

pointed (see also spiky)

volute(s)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

left to right

Keywords:

agaves, pencas, espinas, lenguaje, idiomas, hablar, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Huitznahuac, a place, a calpolli from Chicomoztoc, an ethnicity, warrior-dancers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitznahuac
-catl, affiliation suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/catl
huitz(tli), a thorn or spine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitztli
-nahuac, next to, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahuac
nahua(tl), language, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahuatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

(un título, o un oficio)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 677r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=434&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:

dropped "h"

Historical Contextualizing Image: