Tonal (MH623r)

Tonal (MH623r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound personal name Tonal (seemingly, "Solar Animating Force,") shows the head of a man, who is apparently the person affected by this tonalli. Interestingly, this is not a sun but a plant with a resident hummingbird. Perhaps the hummingbird was like a personal nahualli (shape-shifting spirit that guides a person).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The location of the plant and hummingbird on top of the human head provides a semantic indicator for tonalli, suggesting that the personal animating force was believed to be located at the top of the head, similar to the nahualli. See an example, below. José Rabasa describes the tonalli as "forces linking the individual with the cosmos" [See his article "Writing and Evangelization in Sixteenth-Century Mexico" in the edited volume, Early Images of the Americas: Transfer and Invention (2022), eds. Jerry M. Williams and ‎ Robert E. Lewis, p. 84.]

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

peDro
tonal

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Tonal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Celestial Phenomena
Gender (male)
Hair (human or animal)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

tonal, tonalli, fuerza personal, colibrí, colibríes

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

tonal(li), day, sun, personal animating force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Tonal o Tonalli

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 623r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=328&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: 

Tonal (MH528v)

Tonal (MH577v)

Xochitonal (MH568r)

Tonal (MH882r)

Nahual (MH879v)