Poxcauhtlan (Mdz10v)

Poxcauhtlan (Mdz10v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph shows what may be a flower with multicolored spots, seemingly meant to suggest something moldy or mildewed. The flower lies on its side, with the short white stem to the viewer's left. The verb, poxcahui, to get moldy or mildewed, is the root of this place name. The added locative suffix, -tlan, is not represented visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The flower being on its side may suggest that it has been discarded and is decaying. This flower does not match the shape of other flowers from the Codex Mendoza (compare below, right). The gloss attests to the locative suffix -tlan, place of, rather than -tla (or -tlah), place of abundance of, as Frances Karttunen notices.

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

puxcauhtlan.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Poxcauhtlan, 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 (not visual)

verb

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Aging (People, Animals, Things)

Flowers

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

Keywords:

moldy, mildewed, moho, mohoso, flowers, flores

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

poxcahui, to become moldy or mildewed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/poxcahui-0
poxcauh(qui), something moldy, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/poxcauhqui
poxcauh(yotl), bread mold, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/poxcauhcayotl
-tlan (locative suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Place Where Things Get Mildewed" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There is Much Mold" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 199–200)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"EL Lugar Donde Cosas Se Vuelvan Mohosas"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 31 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).