Tlahuel (MH568r)

Tlahuel (MH568r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tlahuel (“Hello!” attested here as a man’s name) shows a man's face in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. Tlahuel has been translated as a greeting and a conjuring statement, so it could be the latter. Emerging from the man's mouth are two elements: speech scrolls and turquoise tesserae. The latter appear to be a semantic indicator of valued or fine speech, given the preciosity of turquoise.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The noun tlahuelli speaks to rage, fury, and indignation, seemingly provoking the opposite of fine and dignified speech. Huel is an intensifier (like "greatly"), and that ties in with tlahuelli as relating to an intense feeling, although perhaps it was once an intensely positive thing. In contemporary speech, tlahuel seems to be a friendly greeting.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juseb tlauel

Gloss Normalization: 

Josef (or José) Tlahuel

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
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Emotions
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Turquoise or Jade
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
volute(s)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

ira, enojo, mucho, saludos, turquesa, teselas, mosáicos, nombres de hombres

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

tlahuel, hello! or a conjuring expression, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlahuel

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

¡Hola! o El Bienhablado

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 568r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=215&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: 
"b" for p or f
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlahuel (MH518v)

Xiuhnel (MH513r)

Xiuhnel (MH518r)

Tlahuel (MH834r)