Tlamatzinco (TK205r)

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place named Tlamatzinco (“At [the Place of] the Revered Sage Person”). The gloss gives “Tlamahtzinco,” and the probable glottal stop helps clarify that this is about a sage person and not about hunting or chasing someone. The compound is fully composed of phonograms. The reading order, being downward, is somewhat unusual for this manuscript. The reading starts with teeth (tlantli), providing the phonetic syllable -tla- for the start of the place name. Next comes a hand (maitl), which provides the phonetic syllable -ma-. This is followed by a rear end (tzintli), which supplies the phonetic syllable -tzin-, a reverential. Finally, a pottery jug (comitl) serves as the phonetic syllable for the locative suffix (-co). None of these elements is literal or semantic.