Totolapan (Mdz25r)

Totolapan (Mdz25r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Totolapan consists of two main elements, the head of a turkey hen (totolin) sitting on top of a canal or water way (apantli). The bird's head is turquoise with red balls on top of it, red and turquoise stripes across the part above the beak, and a red area below the beak. The beak is white with purple edges. The head is in profile, looking to the viewer's right. The apantli contains turquoise-colored water with black horizontal, wavy stripes. The water has a white turbinate shell and droplet splashing off the top, on either side of the turkey head. The outline of the canal, which gives it some structure, is yellow. The canal is shown in a cross-section.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The head of the turkey hen in question looks much like the huexolotl (turkey) in another glyph (see below). Whether it is a female or a male, is open to question. This image of a "turkey red head" captures the turquoise and red color and the bumps, whereas the Wiktionary has a photo of a totolin that is less elaborate and colored somewhat differently from the glyphic one.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

totolapā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Totolapan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

verb

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Names (places)

Shells

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

red

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

cross-sectioned object

profile view

trapezoidal

wavy

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

huehxolotl, vesulotl, uexolotl, turkeys, hens, turkey cocks, gallipavo, aves de corral, birds, guajolotes, fowl, water channels, waterways, ditches, canales

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

totol(in), a turkey hen, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
apan(tli), water channel/canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
-apan (locative suffix), on the water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-pan (locative suffix), on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Turkey Waters" [Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 104]

Whittaker's Transliteration:

TOTOL•apan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Sobre las Aguas del Pavo (o de la Pava)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 25 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 60 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)