Otompa (Mdz3v)

Otompa (Mdz3v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Otompa includes two prominent visual elements. One is the head of a man who is apparently of the Otomí ethnicity. This man's head, in profile and looking to the viewer's left, has long hair, a light terracotta-colored face, red horizontal and vertical lines intersecting on his face, and a turquoise ear plug. The head sits atop a hill or mountain (tepetl), which serves as a silent stand-in for the locative suffix (-pan), in or on.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The details of the appearance of the person likely has an association with his culture. And the pueblo must have an association with such a figure as this person, too. Our online Nahuatl Dictionary includes evidence that such a person could have held a military rank. Also, something is said about having a unique hairstyle.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

otunpa__puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Otompa, 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: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual but silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Face Paint or Tattoos
Gender (less obviously marked)
Hair (human or animal)
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Race, Ethnicity, Identity
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
orange/terracotta
purple
red
tan
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

otomi(tl), a member of the group of people who speak Otomi, or, perhaps a military officer https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/otomitl
-pan (locative suffix), in, on, or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"At the Otomí Place," or "Where the Otomí Live"

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Otomí" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 197)

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 3 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 17 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: 

Otomitl (Mdz3v)

tepetl (Mdz3v)

tepetl (Mdz3v)