Tlalpican (MH593r)

Tlalpican (MH593r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Tlalpican (perhaps meaning “Where Something is Tied”) shows a building (calli) which provides a semantic indicator for the locative suffix (-can). Above the building is a tied cloth (perhaps a tlalpilli). The cloth has a loop at the top, a big knot, and the two hanging pieces each have two horizontal stripes, much like a loincloth. Shading on the cloth creates a three-dimensionality.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See some loincloths, below, which serve as comparisons. There is a place called Tlalpilcan in the Nomenclatura geográfica de México, saying it was part of the ancient Chalca nation. [See the PDF on the Internet Archive.] It must come from tlalpilli. However, the spelling "Tlalpica[n]" seems to come from the root verb, ilpia, or really the more indefinite tlalpilia, "to tie something." The spelling Tlalpica does occur as a barrio of Huejotzingo in a study by Ursula Dyckerhoff, "Grupos étnicos y estratificación socio-política," Indiana 19/20 (2002/2003), p. 166.

This place name is not about tlalli, land, despite the start to the name, Tlal-. Launey translates the verb tlalpia as "to put on a belt." The root of tlalpia, which is ilpia, can refer to tying people up. This would give the place name a completely different meaning and make the tied thing a phonetic indicator. (See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary entry for tlalpia.)

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tlalpican barrio

Gloss Normalization:

Tlalpilcan, barrio

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:

phonetic possibilities

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

tied, bound, or bundled

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

cloths, textiles, telas, taparrabos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlalpil(li), a tied cloth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalpilli
-can (locative suffix), tells where, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-0

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 593r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=265&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: