Ixtlamati (MH616v)

Ixtlamati (MH616v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Ixtlamati ("He is Wise") is attested here as a man's name. The glyph shows a partial human face in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. The most prominent feature of the face is the eye (ixtli) which can be a phonetic indicator of the start of the name, but it also plays a semantic role.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Vision and knowledge have a close relationship. The name seems to derive from tlamati (also spelled tlamahti, with the glottal stop, “to know something” or to "practice trickery or sorcery." However, the added translation of sorcery and trickery reveals a Christian bias on the part of the friar Alonso de Molina. At the root of tlamati is the verb mati, to know. Marc Thouvenot (2010, 178–181) explains how iximati (which can become imati, to manage cleverly or create skillfully; and this compares to mati (to know). Imati involves knowing through seeing, much like conocer might indicate in Spanish, and mati is "to know" as in saber in Spanish. In both the verbs starting ix- or i-, the sign for eye is a semantic indicator for a place of wisdom.

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

diego ystlamati

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Ixtlamati

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)
phrase or sentence
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as phonogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Education, Knowledge, Wisdom
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

Sabiduría, sabios, conocimiento, visión, ojos, nombres de hombres

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

ixtlamati, to be wise, prudent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtlamati
ix(tli), eye, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtli
tlamati, to know something, or to know sacred powers (verb), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamati
tlamatini, a sage, wise person, scholar, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamatini

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El es Sabio

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 616v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=315&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: 
"s" for x
"y" for i
Historical Contextualizing Image: