Teotlaltzinco (MH860r)

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Teotlaltzinco (perhaps, “At the Sacred Land” or “Little Teotlalco”) shows two large concentric circles, the outer one thicker than the inner one, which together form a border at the far edge. The interior is segmented into groups of short straight lines--horizontal and vertical--forming squares that each have a footprint inside (suggesting movement). At the very center of the inner circle is the lower half of a man’s body. He wears only a white loincloth. His knees are raised, and his right foot is relatively large. Typically, this partial male body is meant to point to the tzintli (buttocks) and yet stand as a phonetic indicator for the reverential or diminutive suffix -tzin or the locative suffix -tzinco, which refers to a spinoff community.