Tizayocan (Mdz22r)

Tizayocan (Mdz22r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Tizayocan has three elements. There is a simplified hill or mountain (tepetl) that could be serving as a silent locative, not entering into the place name phonetically. Inside the hill shape are black dots which convey the idea of chalk (tizatl). Below the hill there is a series of horizontal, alternating footprints.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The footprints represent the noun for road (otli), providing a phonetic value for the "yo" element, which refers to a place that has a "lot of" something or is "full of" something. This differs from the footprint on top of a hill, which more typically indicates the verb pano (to cross over), providing the phonetic value of the locative suffix -pan, such as can also be seen in the compound glyphs for Tlaltizapan, Ocpayocan, Xomeyocan, and Xocoyocan. (See: Gordon Whittaker Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 100.)

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tepal, tetepotztoca, totoco, otlatoca, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tiza(tl), chalk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tizatl
-yo(tl)-, having that characteristic or quality/inalienable possession, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yotl
-can (locative suffix), where, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/can-2

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where It's Chalky" (Whittaker 2021, 101)

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 22 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 54 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).