Itzcuincuitlapilco (Osu36r)

Itzcuincuitlapilco (Osu36r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Itzcuincuitlapilco (perhaps "At the Dog Tail"). The focus of this glyph is a dog (itzcuintli) that is white with black patches. It is sitting upright on its haunches, in profile, facing the viewer's right, on the top of a hill or mountain (tepetl). The mountain may be a generic visual locative, or it might suggest that this place is an altepetl (in that it also gives attention to the opening at its base where natural spring water could emerge from between the red and yellow horizontal stripes). The dog's long tail (cuitlapilli) is hanging down the mountain slope. Some protruding teeth may be visible on the dog. Its visible front paw hangs in the air in front of the animal.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The other example of a glyph for Itzcuincuitlapilco in this collection gives more emphasis to the dog's bottom and tail (cuitlapilli) and has the dog in a position where it might be about to make a bowel deposit (cuitlatl). Cuitlatl is at the root of the word for tail (the location for the emergence of the excrement).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

ytzcuincuitlapil[..]

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Itzcuincuitlapil[co]

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Osuna, Codex (Osu)
Date of Manuscript: 

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Dogs
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
green (light)
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
spotted or mottled
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

perro, perros, cola, colas, excremento, pelaje, manchas negras, cerro, cerros, montaña, montañas, nombres de lugares, place names, topónimo, topónimos

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

itzcuin(tli), dog, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itzcuintli
cuitla(tl), excrement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlatl
cuitlapil(li), tail, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlapilli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, "En la Cola del Perro"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights: 

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL

Orthography: 
"y" for i
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Itzcuincuitlapilco (Mdz8r)