Tlacochin (TK206v)

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the personal name Tlacochin (“Javelin”), attested here as a man’s name. It has four elements, and the reading order is multidirectional. The key element, a javelin (tlacochin or tlacochtli) is at the top. This could be sufficient to represent the name, but the tlacuilo added some phonetic elements to ensure the reader did not interpret the name as mitl (arrow), for example, which the tlacochin can resemble. Below the tlacochin is a type of earthworm called icochin, which serves as a disyllabogram (-cochin) as Gordon Whittaker explains (2021, Figure 4.6). Below that is a pair of white teeth (tlantli) with red gums. This element supplies the -tla- phonetic syllable that is the start to the name. Finally, below the teeth is a pottery vessel called a comitl, which provides the -co- phonetic syllable in the middle of the name. Incidentally, the original contextualizing image was badly stained, so it has been digitally washed to improve the reading of the hieroglyph.