Tlaco (MH576v)

Tlaco (MH576v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tlaco (perhaps “Middle Child," attested here as a man’s name) shows a frontal view of a device used to constrain an enslaved person (tlacotli). It involves a horizontal stick (tlacotl) with black hash marks or stripes and a half (tlaco) circle, perhaps the cuauhcozcatl, that would go around someone's neck.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

John Frederick Schwaller explains (The Church in Colonial Latin America, 2000, 88) how Tiacapan was often the name of the oldest child, Tlaco the name of the middle child, and Xoco the youngest. While Tlaco is more commonly known for girls, Alonso Zamora suggests "Middle Brother" for a reading of this glyph in his blog Tlacuilolli. The glyph is at least partly phonographic.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

peo. tlaco

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Tlaco

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Birth order
Family, Kinship, even Friendship
Gender (male)
Labor Issues
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Slavery
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bent
curving, curvy, curved
horizontal
frontal view
striped
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

families, familias, hijos, children, orden de nacimiento, esclavos, personas esclavizadas, tecnología, aparatos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tlaco(tli), enslaved person, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotli
tlaco(tl), stick, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotl
tlaco, half, middle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlaco

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Segundo Hijo, o El Esclavo, o El Palo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 576v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=232&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlaco (MH516r)

cuauhcozcatl (Mdz66r)

Huatzal (MH518v)

Tlaco (MH632v)

Tlaco (MH641r)