Michhuacan (TR25v)

Michhuacan (TR25v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Michhuacan (Michoacán today) includes a fish (michin) on top of a mountain or hill that provides a stand-in for the -can locative suffix. The fish is horizontal and shown in profile view, facing toward the viewer's right. Its scales and fins are drawn in fine detail. Its visible eye is open, and its mouth is open slightly, too. This hill or mountain is bell-shaped and entirely green except for the white horizontal line toward the base. The slopes have curling, rocky outcroppings.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

There is a reason Michoacán bears this name, given the historical strength of its lakes for fishing.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)
Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual but silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Food, Eating, Cooking
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
bird's eye view
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

fish, peces, pescado

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

mich(in), fish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/michin
hua, possession, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can, locative suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 25 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f76.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.”

See Also: 

michin (TR25v)