Opochtli (MH826r)

Opochtli (MH826r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Opochtli (perhaps “Left-Handed” and possibly a deity name taken by a tribute payer) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows the lower half of a man’s body. It is the left (opochtli) side, shown in profile, facing the viewer’s left. At the site of his buttocks there is a large black dot, perhaps meant to bring attention to his rear end and the fact that he is a young man (telpochtli), as a phonetic complement to the name. Or perhaps it is a ball of rubber (olli), providing a near homophonic indication that this name starts with O-.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The phonetic phonetic possibilities of this name are just speculation. Perhaps there is another explanation; suggestions would be appreciated. There is another similar rendering of the name Opochtli in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (MH842r). The “O” at the start of Opochtli was originally missing in the gloss. Someone else made the correction in a blacker ink. The reason for dropping that “o” originally may be because the first name (Francisco) ends with an “o.”

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

fraco opochtli

Gloss Normalization: 

Francisco Opochtli

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: 
deity name/theonym
personal name
phonetic possibilities
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
left to right
Keywords: 

mano izquierda, nalgas, jóven, hule, nombres de hombres

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

opoch(tli), left or left-handed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/opochtli
telpoch(tli), a young man, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/telpochtli

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

In her unpublished essay (shared with me) reviewing the work of Berdan and Anawalt in deciphering place names in the Codex Mendoza, Frances Karttunen adds this in her notes: "There seems to be a morpheme in ichpo:ch- 'young woman' and telpo:ch- 'young man' that may also occur in the deity names o:po:ch- and hui:zilo:po:ch-. It forms its plural by reduplication: po:po:ch-; cf. telpo:po:chtin 'young men' rather than simply tel.po:chtin.”

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Zurdo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 826r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=726&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: 
See Also: 

Opochtli (MH545v)

Opochtli (MH677r)

Huitzilopochco (Mdz20r)

olli (Mdz20r)

olli (Mdz70r)