Tlaco (MH796v)

Tlaco (MH796v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This is a black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlaco. The gloss says Tlacotl, but the absolutive seems to be an error or an archaic holdover. Tlaco is very common for women, as women often had birth-order names: Xoco is the youngest daughter, Tlaco the middle daughter, and Tiacapan is the eldest. Tlacotl and Tlaco are near homonyms, so the confusion is not too surprising. If intentional here, Tlacotl would mean “osier twig,” but the gloss does not support this, and osier twigs are not difficult to find in glyphs. The glyph here shows what appear to be three front teeth (tlantli), which serve as a phonetic indicator that the name starts with Tla-. The -co (or -cotl) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Another near homonym for tlaco and tlacotl is tlacotli, the term for an enslaved person. So, sometimes the name Tlaco (middle daughter) shows a woman with a yoke on her neck of the type that were put on people to control them. Even a yoke itself appears for Tlaco, but it can also be called a cuauhcozcatl (wooden necklace), as seen below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

luixa tlacotl

Gloss Normalization: 

Luisa Tlacotl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
homophony, rebus
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as phonogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Keywords: 

ramitas de mimbre, hija en medio, mediana, dientes, esclavos, nombres de mujeres

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

tlaco, middle child, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlaco
tlaco(tl), osier twig, used for bloodletting, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotl
tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
tlaco(tli), an enslaved person, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Hija en Medio

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 796v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=667&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).

Orthography: 
errors and revisions
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlaco (MH516r)

Tlacotl (MH647r)

cuauhcozcatl (Mdz66r)