Tlayacac (TK206v)

Tlayacac (TK206v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Tlayacac (“At the Point”), a subdivision of the altepetl of Tepetlaoztoc. The compound includes two elements. The reading is downward from the top, where there is a pair of teeth (tlantli) with red gums. This sign provides the phonetic syllable for the indefinite prefix Tla-. Below the teeth is a frontal view of a nose (yacatl). The nostrils are identifiable, and there is a dot below the center of the nose. The nose here conveys a location regarding the settlement in question. According to Gordon Whittaker, it refers to being “At the Point.”

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Many adverbs that convey location, direction, and spatial relationships come from parts of the human body. The shoulder (acolli), for instance, can refer to a bend in a river or a cove in a lake. The lips (tentli) can suggest an edge or border. As here, the nose (yacatl) can mean at the top or in the lead. The ear (nacaztli) can refer to being at the side or on the corner. Hands (maitl) lend themselves to measurements for land.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K04_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K04_B.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

tlayacac.

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Tlayacac

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

picos, puntos, montaña, montañas, nariz, narices, dientes, topónimo, topónimo, nombres de lugares, fonetismo

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

tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
yaca(tl), nose, point, something in the lead, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacatl
Tlayacac, at the point, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlayacac

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En el Punto, o En el Pico

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights: 

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlayacac (Mdz24v)

Tlayacapan (Mdz24v)

Tlayacac (MH748v)