Tlatolzazaca (Verg14r)

Tlatolzazaca (Verg14r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tlatolzazaca, or Tlahtolzazaca with the glottal stop (“He Gossips,” attested here as a man’s name) shows two front teeth (tlantli) and five speech scrolls opposite of a mouth (in profile, facing left). Three of the speech scrolls appear to represent "words" (tlatolli/tlahtolli) and two are made of hay or straw (zacatl). The latter are spiny. They all curl at the ends; only the highest one curls upwards.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The tlantli (teeth) represent a phonetic indicator for the sound at the start of the name, "Tla-." The longer, compound word tlatolzazaca actually refers to the verb "to gossip." The part of the name relating to hay or straw (zacatl) is reduplicated both visually and in the gloss.

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Vergara, Codex (Verg)
Date of Manuscript: 

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

near Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
frontal view
profile view
spiny
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
volute(s)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
4
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
upward
left to right
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tlatol(li), word, language, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatolli
zaca(tl), grass, hay, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zacatl

Image Source: 

Codex Vergara, folio 14r, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84528032/f35.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.” We would also appreciate a citation to the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/.

Historical Contextualizing Image: