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: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
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)