Tlatoani (MH711r)

Tlatoani (MH711r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This colorful simplex glyph for the personal name, Tlatoani (“One Who Speaks”), shows five speech scrolls emerging outward from the tribute payer’s mouth (shown in profile). They turn up and down at the ends. Two volutes are yellow, two are left white or natural, and one is red.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Contrary to what the name might suggest, this man is not a ruler. “Speaker” typically refers to a ruler, but here it must have been a name given to a talkative baby. The name “Chalan,” which appears several times in this digital collection, seems to have a similar meaning, “Talkative Person.” The meaning of the color scheme of the volutes is elusive.

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)
visible sound
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
volute(s)
Keywords: 

volutas, hablar, nombres de hombres

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

tlatoani, speaker, one who speaks, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatoani

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Hablador

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 711r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=500&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).

Orthography: 
intrusive "v"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Chalan (MH555r)

Chalan (MH744v)

Chalan (MH796v)