Tonaxochitl (MH704v)

Tonaxochitl (MH704v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tonaxochitl (perhaps “XXX”) is attested here as a woman’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a European-style sun with a human face, and this seems to serve as the verb tona (for the sun to shine). The sun is a large circle with about twelve triangular rays distributed around the outer edge of the circle. To the right of the sun is a flower with three visible petals. It is red and the base and grows lighter toward the petals, which are white. Please note that we have rotated this compound glyph to ease the eventual visual recognition of it (for the purpose of comparing it with other similar glyphs). The contextualizing image shows the original angle at which this compound appeared.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Tonal (and Tonal-) is much more common in personal names than Tona-. So, perhaps the “l” was omitted by mistake. But the warmth and shimmer of the sun are very important aspects of the sun in Nahua names, in general. In the name Atonal, for example, just the rays of the sun suffice for the -tonal part of the name. Also, Xochitonal is a common name (for men).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

maria tonaxochitl

Gloss Normalization:

María Tonaxochitl

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:

Celestial Phenomena

Flowers

Gender (female)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Keywords:

soles, calor, caliente, flores, nombres de mujeres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tonal(li), sun, day, solar animating force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli
xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Calor del Sol-Flor

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 704v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=487&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: