Mizquiyahuallan (Mdz27r)

Mizquiyahuallan (Mdz27r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Mizquiyahuallan (perhaps "Near the Curved Mesquite Tree") includes a curving tree, bending to the viewer's right. It has a terracotta-colored trunk and four branches. The branches have two-tone green foliage at the end, and each branch has two yellow spikes, possibly blossoms, protruding from them. All along the trunk are thorns or spines that are red at their bases and white at their tips. Red, curling roots appear at the base of the tree. The locative suffix -tla, place of abundance of) (drops the t after a stem ending in l) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The suffix could also be -tla, instead of -tlan. Either one, when attached to a stem ending in "l" will result in a doubling of the "l." The -tla refers to a place with an abundance of that material, and the -tlan refers to a place near that material. Because the final "n" can inadvertently drop away or intrude, this decision will often be a difficult one.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

myzquiyahuala.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Mizquiyahualla, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
orange/terracotta
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
roots are visible
spiny
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Reading Order, Notes: 

The curve is worked into the tree.

Keywords: 

trees, árboles, bushes, arbustos, flores, flowers, espinas, spines, curves, curvas, arches, arcos, Mizquiyahuallan, Mizquiyahualan, Mizquiyahuala

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

mizqui(tl), mesquite tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yahualli
yahual(li), around or round, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yahualli
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Mesquite Arch Place" (Karttunen apparently favors restoring the final n to the locative, rejecting the "abundance" meaning of -tla here.) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There Are Many Mesquite Circles" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 193)

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 27 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 64 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).