Tlatolnemi (MH593v)

Tlatolnemi (MH593v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tlatolnemi (or, Tlahtolnemi, with the glottal stop, meaning “He Lives by Words,” attested here as a man’s name) shows two speech scrolls representing words (tlatolli) coming out of the tribute payer's mouth. The swirls on the ends curl under. Four footprints surround these speech scrolls. The footprints suggest the verb, nemi, to live or to go about.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The implication is that this person goes about speaking, lives to speak, lives through his words, or the like. Footprints have any number of readings in this database, but the gloss helps the reader know which reading is intended.

Speech scrolls that come out of a human mouth (also, for instance, from an eagle's beaks=) can represent a range of vocabulary, including: tlatolli (word), itoa (to speak), tzatzi (to announce), motenehua (aforementioned), nahuatl (language, or a pleasant sound), chalani (to speak a lot), and cuica (to sing). This list is not exhaustive.

It is interesting that "word" is represented as oral rather than alphabetic or hieroglyphic. Oral communication was (and still is) paramount in Nahua culture.

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tepal, tetepotztoca, totoco, otlatoca, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juā tlatolnemi

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Tlatolnemi

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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)
verb
visible movement
visible sound
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Footprint(s), human
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Writing, Literacy
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
volute(s)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
outward (from inside out)
Keywords: 

words, palabras, footprints, huellas

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

tlatol(li), word, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatolli
nemi, to live, to go along, to walk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nemi

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Anda Hablando, o Vive Hablando

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 593v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=266&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlatoltopile (MH835v)