Tecuetlan (MH518r)

Tecuetlan (MH518r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tecuetlan (here, attested as a man's name) shows what may be the head of a large venomous lizard (a tecue). The lizard's head is shown in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. Its mouth is open, and its teeth are showing. The gloss does not provide a final "n," but the animal's teeth may provide the phonetic element for the locative suffix -tlan. The suffix indicates that this Juan was from a place called Tecuetlan, and it might not be a personal name at all, but a place known for its giant, poisonous lizards.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

As an example, there is a town in Guerrero called Tecuetlan, and a vocabulary that includes the toponym suggests it means "piedras flojas" (loose gravel). [See: Marcos Matías Alonso and ‎Constantino Medina Lima, Vocabulario nahuatl-castellano de Acatlán, Guerrero, 1995, 80.]

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juao tecuetla

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Tecuetlan

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
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

lizards, lagartos, veneno, poison

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

tecue, a large, venomous lizard, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecue
Tecuetlaza, a man's name, Cuernavaca, 1540s, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuetlaza
Tecuexoch, a woman's name in Cuauhtinchan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuexoch
Tecuepotzin, a personal name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuepotzin

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 518r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=115&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).

Orthography: 
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: