Tetzapotitlan (Mdz53r)

Tetzapotitlan (Mdz53r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tetzapotitlan has two principal visual elements: a stone (tetl) at the bottom and, above that, a tree, the (tzapotl). The stone is the standard horizontal oval shape with curling ends and alternating purple and terracotta-orange wavy stripes. Perhaps the stone is meant to refer to a specific type of tzapotl that has an especially hard fruit. The tree has a leader and three branches, all painted in two tones of green. At the end of each branch is a clump of foliage and, emerging from that, two small ball shapes (probably meant to be the fruits). The locative suffix (-titlan) is not shown visually, but perhaps the landscape provide a semantic locative.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

teçapotitlan.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Tetzapotitlan, 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, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

oval (see also leaf shaped)

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

tripartite

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

Tezapotitlan, árboles, frutas, piedras

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

te(tl), stone or rock, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
tzapo(tl), a fruit tree, the sapota (or zapote in Mexican Spanish), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzapotl
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 53 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 118 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).