Ilancueitl (TR29v)

Ilancueitl (TR29v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name of a ruling woman, Ilancueitl, shows a set of upper teeth (tlantli), a skirt (cueitl), and a cord tie around the skirt with dangling organs (elli). The tying of the organs involves the verb ilpia. For other representations of organs, see below. The skirt is a typical rectangle with a design along the bottom border. The colors in this design are reminiscent of the ilhuitl (day) symbol in the Codex Mendoza.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Gordon Whittaker (2021, 47) analyzes this glyph as meaning "Old Woman's Skirt," with the first part of the name (Ilan-) meaning "an old woman's" and the second part (cueitl) meaning "skirt," a logogram. The "ilan" comes from the noun ilama. Above the skirt is a set of upper teeth (tlantli), which, as Whittaker explains, provides the phonetic values of tlan and tla, and these change to -lan and -la when preceded by an "l." He continues by explaining that the cord that is tied around the skirt has internal organs (elli), such as a liver and gallbladder. Elli is both a logogram and a phonogram that provides syllables el and il. Further, he notes, the tying of the organs brings up the verb ilpia (to tie, or bind), which provides another i-, a phonetic indicator.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood (drawing from Gordon Whittaker)

Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood and Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Reading Order, Notes: 

The reading starts with ilpia and elli, then upward to the tlantli, and back down to the cueitl. (See the explanation from Whittaker 2021, 47.)

Keywords: 

skirts, faldas, hígados, livers, teeth, dientes, ropes, mecates, cordones,

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Whittaker's Transliteration: 

i2il-lan-CUEITL

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Falda de la Anciana

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 29 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f84.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: