Tlatoltepec (TR25v)

Tlatoltepec (TR25v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tlatoltepec (or Tlahtoltepec, with the glottal stop) comes from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. The tlatolli/tlahtolli (word, speech, statement) element is a frontal view of a horizontal row of five white teeth with red gums and, above that, a line of white. Coming out of the bottom of the teeth are white speech scrolls and some white spikes. The tepetl (hill, mountain) is bell-shaped, tall, somewhat elongated. It is painted green, and curling rocky outcroppings appears on the slopes. The horizontal line at the base of the mountain is white.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

More numerous are glyphs for the verb "to speak" (tlatoa/tlahtoa). For examples of these, see below. It is interesting that "word" is represented as oral rather than alphabetic or hieroglyphic. Oral communication was paramount in Nahua culture.

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tlatoltepetl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Tlahtoltepetl (or better, Tlahtoltepec)

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)

Date of Manuscript:

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

visual plural (multiples of objects)

visual sound

Writing Features:

undetermined yet

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition, Languages

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Writing, Literacy

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood and Stephanie Wood

Colors:

green (light)

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

bird's eye view

horizontal

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

volute(s)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

outward (from inside out)

Keywords:

words, speeches, statements, palabras, oraciones, discursos, mountains, hills, cerros, tlatolli, Tlatoltepec, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlatol(li), word, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatolli
tepe(tl), hill/mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl

Image Source:

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 25 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f76.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights:

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”