Tlachyahualco (Mdz21v)

Tlachyahualco (Mdz21v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tlachyahualco consists of a ball court (tlach(tli)] inside a circle (yahualli). The ball court is seen from above, in a bird's eye view. It has the shape of a capital I, lying on its side. There are two rings in the middle of the court, on either side, meant for the balls to pass through. The court has a purple color, the same color used in the Codex Mendoza for tlalli (land, dirt, earth). The perimeter of the ball court is white, but the reason is not clear.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The -yahualco ending on a place name may provide a locative suffix meaning "encircling." In this case, the result may be "Encircling the Ball Court" or "Around the Ball Court." See also Calyahualco (below, right), which might mean "Encircling the House/Building." If not, then the -co locative suffix is not visual.

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tlachyahualco pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Tlachyahualco, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (places)

Sports, Games, Leisure

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

purple

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

half circle

horizontal

rectangular

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

outward (from inside out)

Keywords:

circles, ball courts, ballcourts, around, surrounding, cículos, canchas, pistas redondo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlach(tli), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlachtli
yahual(li), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yahualli
-yahualco (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yahualco
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 21 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 53 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).