Poctlan (Mdz46r)

Poctlan (Mdz46r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Poctlan is a cluster of four curls of smoke. The three at the top curl to the right and the one at the bottom curls to the left. The smoke is purple on the outside of the curls and terracotta/orange on the inside. The locative suffix (-tlan, near), is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

As attested in the gloss the locative suffix does have its final "n" for -tlan, near. It if were -tla (or -tlah, if we recognize the glottal stop), it would more clearly have something to do with abundance.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

puctlan.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Poctlan, pueblo

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

smoke, humo, Puctlan

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

-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Smoke Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There is Much Smoke" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 199)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Humo"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)