Michteuh (MH529v)

Michteuh (MH529v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Michteuh (“Small Grilled Fish,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a horizontal fish facing toward the viewer's left. The fish has three fins, a bifurcated tail, and its eye and mouth are open. Beneath this fish is a much smaller one, heading up toward the head of the larger fish. The smaller one seems most likely to represent the term michteuhtli.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The name as glossed begins "Mix-" which would not suggest fish (Mich-), but rather clouds. So, if this name has nothing to do with fish, the fish are there as a phonetic indicator for clouds. But clouds are regularly visualized fairly realistically in other names, such as Mixcoatl.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

juā mixteuh

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Michteuh (?)

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Sexuality, Fertility
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

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

huevo, pez, peces, la cría, pescado asado, nombres de hombres

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

michteuh(tli), a small grilled fish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/michteuhtli
mich(in), fish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/michin
michte(tl), fish egg, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/michtetl
-teuh, in the manner of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teuh

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Pequeño Pescado Asado

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 529v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=138&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: