Tlalconetl (MH577v)

Tlalconetl (MH577v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlalconetl (“Lizard" or perhaps "Slug,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a frontal view of an animal with four legs (or two arms and two legs). Its face is drawn simply as two eyes (slits) and a mouth (also a slit). Its fingers are being held up. Could this be a representation of a lizard? Another, more literal translation would be "Earth-Child."

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The Travaux et memoires de l'Institut d'ethnologie, Vol. 62 (1958), p. 218, translates tlalconetl as a type of lizard. Tlalconete or tlaconete became the loan from Nahuatl into Spanish and was used to refer to a slimy, repugnant creature that thrives in humid places. The Mejicanismos book by Santamaría suggests that folklore held that the creature could get into the vagina of a virgin and only intercourse could get it out. [See: José G. Moreno de Alba, La lengua española en México (2015).]

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Children, Childhood, Adolescence

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:

slugs, babosas, hijos, children, Earth, la Tierra, tierras

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlalcone(tl), a slug, a lizard, or a name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalconetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Babosa, o Hijo de la Tierra

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 577v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=234&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: