tlatoani (Osu34r)

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph is not glossed, but the elements clearly relate to the title tlatoani (or tlahtoani, with the glottal stop). The elements include what is known as the xiuhhuitzolli, a type of crown that ties at the back of a man’s head and has a clear association with a lord, a man with a very high social status. Near this crown are two volutes or speech scrolls that refer to the authority a ruler has to speak (tlatoa). This is both phonetic and semantic. A ruler is one who speaks (tlatoani). The crown is turquoise blue (fitting for the xiuh- start to the term for the headgear). It has a black line along the top edge, and the tie is red with gold at the lower tips. The speech scrolls are red nearest to what would be the location of the mouth and white at the ends that curl under. Red and white are revered colors; they also appear on flint knives, for example.