Opan (MH574r)

Opan (MH574r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Opan (“On the Road,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a bird's eye view of an outlined segment of a road (otli). The outline of the road is curvy. On the road are two alternating footprints. Footprints can stand for the locative suffix (-pan), in or on.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Roads or pathways are often indicated simply with footprints, but this glyph is striving to represent both the road and the fact of being "on" the road. The footprints can count for both the logogram of otli and the logogram for being "on" (the locative suffix (-pan).

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tetepotztoca, totoco, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

atoo. opā.

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Opan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
preposition
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Footprint(s), human
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Transportation, Travel, Roads
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
bird's eye view
facing upward
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inward (from outside in)
Keywords: 

footprints, huellas, roads, caminos

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

o(tli), road, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/otli
-pan (locative suffix), on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En el Camino

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 574r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=227.

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: 
See Also: 

otli (Mdz22r)

Texopan (Mdz43r)