Totoltzinco (Mdz21v)

Totoltzinco (Mdz21v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Totoltzinco includes the head of a wild turkey (totolin) and the rear end (tzintli). The human body is a terracotta color. The human is positioned as though facing to the right. A white belt for what would be a loincloth conveys that this is a male figure. The turkey head, also positioned as though facing the right, is primarily colored a turquoise blue, but it has a gray beak, a white eye ball, red dots scattered around the head, red stripes on the back of its neck, and a large red wattle (loose skin near the neck). Around the perimeter of the head are six little balls, turquoise in color.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The positioning of the turkey head and the tzintli makes it appear as though the human has a turkey head. One wonders if the humorous result is intentional. The tzintli is there to provide the phonetic value of the -tzinco locative suffix, which says "at the little" or "new [town]," and it has nothing to do with human anatomy.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

totolçingo.puo

Gloss Normalization:

Totoltzinco, 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)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

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

Gender (male)

Humor (potentially)

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

dotted, granular, textured

facing left

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

right to left

Keywords:

guajolotes, turkeys, nalgas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

totol(in), wild turkey, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
-tzinco (locative suffix), lower, little, or new [town], https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzinco

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 21 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 53 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)