Matixco (Mdz21v)
This compound glyph for the place name Matixco has two principal visual elements, an eye (ixtli) and two arms with hands (maitl), one right and one left. The eye has a red eyelid filling half of a circle. Another half circle in the center of the larger circle and, below the red lid, the artist has provided the iris or pupil. It is white, as is the remainder of the eyeball. The hands are a pair (right and left) with attached forearms standing upright. They hands are almost framing the eyes.
Stephanie Wood
The eye here provides the phonetic clue to the reading of the locative suffix, the postposition -ixco (or, here, with the t ligature, -tixco, separating what would otherwise be two adjoining vowels--i.e. euphony), meaning "in front of" (Whittaker) or "on the surface of" (Karttunen). The word maitl can refer to either hands or arms, or both. Usually, the arms that are indicated by this term are the forearms. Full arms are visible when shoulders (acolli) are being indicated. Arm lengths were important in measurements. In this case, however, one almost wonders whether there is a geographical feature in the particular location that was reminiscent of arms. Karttunen suggests a reference to a branch in a river.
Stephanie Wood
matixco. puo
Matixco, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
hands, arms, eyes, manos, brazos, ojos, euphony, eufonía, intercalación
mai(tl), hand or arm, and a measurement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
ma(tl), hand or arm, and a measurement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matl
ix(tli), eye, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtli
-ixco (locative suffix), in front of or on the surface of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixco
"On the Surface of the Branch" (i.e. possibly a tributary of a river) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]
"In Front of the Arms" [Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 105]; "In the Place of Escape" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 191)
MA2-TIXCO
"Frente a los brazos" or "En frente del cruce de los ríos"(?)
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 21 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 53 of 188.
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).
