Nentequitl (MH737v)

Nentequitl (MH737v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Nentequitl (“Fruitless Labor”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a stone (tetl), providing a phonetic indicator for the middle syllable of the name. This is a horizontal stone with the usual alternating dark and light stripes on an angle and curling ends. Above the stone is a frontal view of a head with two ears, two dots for eyes, a dot for a nose, and a dot for a mouth. This face seems to stand for nenetl, which in this case probably intends “deity image.”

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The frontal view of a face is rare with people, but more common with deity images. This same simplified face also comes into several glyphs that have a teotl component, as though deities were increasingly personalized as compared to the teotl in the Codex Mendoza that was a half sun. The name Nentequitl is very popular or common in this digital collection. It is unclear whether farmworkers were being insulted as lazy and their work useless. Perhaps the name suggests that one could never get ahead, even with hard work. The nen- syllable is usually negative.

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

ne or nen syllable

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Labor Issues

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

diagonal or angled

frontal view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

striped

Keywords:

trabajo, imágenes de deidades o fuerzas divinas, inútil, pereza

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

nentequiti, to labor in vain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nentequitl
nene(tl), deity image, doll, or female genitals, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nenetl
tequi(tl), work, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tequitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Trabajo en Vano, o Trabajo Inútil

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 737v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=553&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: