Ohuapan (Mdz37r)

Ohuapan (Mdz37r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Ohuapan ("On the Stalk of Green Maize") consists of two notable features, a maize stalk (ohuatl) and a flag (panitl). The latter provides the phonetic value for the locative suffix -pan (on or at). The maize plant has curling red roots and one ear of corn above one of the leaves on the left side. The cob is yellow with a red tassel. It has two vertical hash marks that give the appearance of eyes. The maize plant is also flowering, and the flower consists of two vertical, yellow sprigs with small round shapes on the insides of the sprigs. The flag also emerges between the two sprigs. The flat is rectangular, flying to the viewer's right, and attached to a vertical (probably wooden) handle that is only a bit longer than the fabric.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The flowering of the plant may suggest that it is green or not fully ready to harvest, despite the appearance of a cob with tassel, which could suggest otherwise. The hash marks on the cob are reminiscent of the reading of "hua" on some other glyphs (cihuatl, for instance). The flower is very much like our element miahuatl (see below, right).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

ohuapā.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Ohuapan, 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: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Corn, Maize
Flags, banners
Flowers
Food, Eating, Cooking
Names (men's, but w/ female dimension)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
rectangular
roots are visible
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

ohua(tl), green maize stalk(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ohuatl
-pan (locative suffix), on or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"On the Stalk of Green Maize" (agreeing with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Stalk of Green Maize" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"En la Caña del Maíz Verde"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood, drawing from Alonso de Molina

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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).

See Also: 

miyahuatl (Mdz52r)

cihuatl (Mdz38r)

panitl (Mdz16r)

panitl (Mdz55r)