Tlaltecatl (Verg11v)

Tlaltecatl (Verg11v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tlaltecatl (perhaps “Person of the Land” or "One from Tlallan" attested here as a man’s name) shows a bird's eye view of a rectangular parcel of land (tlalli) with two segments, one with a black dot in the middle and the other with small dots (suggesting cultivation?). The parcels have a division in the middle and a border along the bottom and the sides, but not the top. At the middle of the top of the rectangle is a part of a face that emphasizes lips (tentli), providing a phonetic syllable "-te-," which, when combined with the flow of water (atl), can come close to "-tecatl." The lips face toward the viewer's left, and almost springing from the mouth are has four short streams, each one ending in alternating droplets/beads and turbinate shells.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The name Tlaltecatl--or its reverential version Tlaltecatzin--was widespread in the central highlands. According to Miguel León-Portilla (In the Language of Kings, 2002, 79), a fourteenth-century poet named Tlaltecatzin lived in Cuauhchinanco, Puebla, apparently dominated by the Chichimecs of Tetzcoco. He may have been a predecessor of Nezahualcoyotl. The Digital Florentine Codex includes a reference to the first ruler of Tetzcoco as a Tlaltecatzin (Book 8, f. 7r, https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/8/folio/7r). Michel Graulich (Moctezuma, 2014, lxxxix) refers to a Tlaltecatzin who was a king of Tlacopan (Tacuba today). John Bierhorst mentions these and other famous men named Tlaltecatzin in his A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos (1985, 338).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

luis.tlaltecatl

Gloss Normalization:

Luis Tlaltecatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Vergara, Codex (Verg)

Date of Manuscript:

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

near Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories:

personal name

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising

Gender (male)

Land Parcels, Use, Issues

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Race, Ethnicity, Identity, Othering

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

right to left

Keywords:

lands, tierras, lips, labios, water, agua, agricultura, terrenos, sementeras, parcelas, tenencia de la tierra, parcels, nombres de hombres, nombres famosos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlal(li), land, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalli
-tecatl (affiliation suffix), person from…, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecatl
Tlaltecatzin, a famous name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlaltecatzin

Image Source:

Codex Vergara, folio 11v, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84528032/f30.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights:

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.” We would also appreciate a citation to the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/.

Historical Contextualizing Image: