Tlazal (MH665v)

Tlazal (MH665v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlazal (“Bird Catcher”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of two hands with something amorphous between them, perhaps the sticky device or cloth that was used for catching birds (tlazalli).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Sometimes tlazalli is translated as “glue,” and that may be the amorphous substance that appears here between the hands. Frances Karttunen writes that tlazalli “is abundantly attested in Z with the sense of ‘clothing, cloth.’ M has only the ‘bird lime’ sense, which in the sources for this dictionary are supported by derivations from ZĀLOĀ ‘to glue, join something.’” See her, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 305.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Hunting and Fishing
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Keywords: 

tecnología, divisas, ligas, ropa, telas, cazar, pájaros, nombres de hombres

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

tlazal(li), a device for catching birds, using something sticky or a cloth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlazalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Cazador de Pájaros

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 665v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=411&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).

Orthography: 
"ç" for z or tz
"u" for b or v
Historical Contextualizing Image: