malinalli (Mdz16r)

malinalli (Mdz16r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This green, red, and yellow painting of the element malinalli (twisted grass) has been taken from the compound place name glyph Malinaltepec (see below). This version of malinalli shows twisted two-tone green grasses in a figure 8 shape with red curling roots and seven yellow tips. Malinalli is also a day sign in the tonalpohualli religious divinatory calendar.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This probably element emphasizes the edible grass or the dry grass/hay that could be twisted and used for tying or bundling things or building, or for medicinal uses, as explained elsewhere. In his Spanish to Nahuatl section, Alonso de Molina translates malinalli as paja (Spanish for hay).

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

Keywords:

hierbas torcidas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

malinal(li), tall grass or twisted grass, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/malinalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

las hierbas torcidads

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 16 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 42 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).