Nextitlan (Mdz20v)

Nextitlan (Mdz20v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Nextitlan consists of two principal visual elements, a cloud of ashes (nextli) with a mouth of white teeth (tlantli)] in the middle. The ashes are dotted and washed over with a dark gray. The teeth are both top and bottom front teeth, very white, and the mouth is slightly open. An oval black line unites the top and bottom teeth.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The teeth are there to provide the phonetic locative suffix (-tlan) and have nothing to do with the ashes, which are the principal component of the place name. Gordon Whittaker (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 102) has discovered that the full set of teeth (top and bottom) can be used, as here, when there is a ligature (-ti-) before the locative suffix -tlan. The cloud of ashes is somewhat reminiscent of the turmoil in the place name for Cocollan (see below, right).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

nextitlan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Nextitlan, 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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

ligature -ti- (visual)

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

black

gray

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

frontal view

scalloped edges

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inward (from outside in)

Keywords:

ashes, cinders, place, locative, teeth

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

nex(tli), ashes or cinders, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nextli
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Among the Ashes" (agreeing with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Among the Ashes" (Whittaker, 2021, 102); "Among the Ashes" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 195)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

NEX•titlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Entre las Cenizas"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood (based on Whittaker's English)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 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).