Tenochtitlan (Osu8v)

Tenochtitlan (Osu8v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name, Tenochtitlan (“On the Cactus of the Stone”), shows a prickly pear cactus (nochtli) on a stone (tetl), and the stone is surrounded by a small amount of turquoise-blue water. The cactus is green and segmented, with long sharp red-and-white thorns. The cactus has perhaps five red flowers and five red fruits. The blue water is semantic and not otherwise read as part of the name. The locative suffix (-titlan), next to, is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This glyph is emblematic, surviving in a modified form still today on the Mexican flag. The blue water is a reminder that Mexico City was founded in the middle of lakes.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Race, Ethnicity, Identity

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

striped

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

ciudades, altepetl, nopales, piedras, lagos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Tenochtitlan, Mexico City, “On the Cactus of the Stone,” https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenochtitlan
te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
noch(tli), prickly pear cactus, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nochtli
-titlan (locative suffix), next to, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/titlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Mexico-Tenochtitlan

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: