tlantli (Mdz45r)

tlantli (Mdz45r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for tooth/teeth (tlantli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Achiotlan. In that compound it was a phonogram, but here we are including it as a logogram. It is not the usual sign with red gums, but is a white skeletal jaw with four teeth.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The skeletal jaw might suggest death, but there is no other particular reason for this reading.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
white/neutral
Keywords: 

place, locative, teeth

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

tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan, by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

teeth or place

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 45 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 100 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Achiotlan (Mdz45r)