Nochhuetl (MH522r)

Nochhuetl (MH522r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing for the compound glyph of the personal name Nochhuetl (perhaps "Ideal Bean") has three significant elements. One is the prickly pear cactus fruit (nochtli), with its flower at the top and spines all over. Another is the incorporation of the man whose name this is, and the way the artist put lines on his face to suggest that he is an elder (huehue). Finally, speech scrolls come from him, which might be a reinforcement of his age by referring to huehuetlahtolli, elder speech. This man is shown in profile, looking to the viewer's right.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

What this name means, beyond prickly pear cactus fruit, is unclear and deserves more research. In the Códice de Santa María Asunción (quoted in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary) the fruit (nochtli) is paired with the huehuetl drum, which would likely be a phonetic indicator for the "-huetl" part of the name. Often, in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, the glyph is just the prickly pear fruit and nothing more, which does not help with a deeper understanding of the name Nochhuetl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

jua^o nochueh

Gloss Normalization:

Juan Nochhueh

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Aging (People, Animals, Things)

Food, Eating, Cooking

Gender (male)

Plants, Flora

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

right to left

Keywords:

elders, ancianos, hablar, speech, cactus, cacti, cactos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Nochhuetl, a personal name, perhaps "Ideal Bean", https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nochhuetl
noch(tli) prickly pear cactus fruit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nochtli
huehuetlahtol(li), elder speech, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehuetlahtolli
huehue, elder, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehue-0
tlahuel, hello!, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlahuel

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 522r, World Digital Library.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=123&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: