Tozpan (MH833v)

Tozpan (MH833v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tozpan (perhaps "Parrot Flag") is attested here as a man's name. The glyph consists of two vertical yellow parrot (toztli) feathers, one above the other, on the face of a vertical flag (panitl) that is facing toward the viewer's right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

While we have given this glyph a literal translation, it has the look of a place name, in which case the flag would have a phonetic value. If this were a place name, however, then one would expect Tozpanecatl as the name or ethnicity of the tribute payer who is indicated. And, in fact, Tozpan is a recurring name, just as it is. See, for instance, the many attestations of the name in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary.

We are watching for the use of pantli, tecpantli, panitl, and pamitl. It is a challenge to differentiate between them, for they look very much alike most of the time. For now, when the banner has an association with a number, we are using pantli or tecpantli, watching how they are glossed, and when it is a phonetic locative for a place name, we are often using panitl. Apparently panitl was more common in "Mexico, the Tepanec heartland, and perhaps Colhuacan and Chalco," and pamitl in "northern and eastern flanks of the Valley of Mexico" [see: Jorge Klor de Alva, in The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-century Aztec Mexico (Albany, NY: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, the University at Albany, State University of New York, 1988), 323]. As glyphs come in to this collection from regions where pamitl is more common, we will abide by that orthography.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

dio tozpā

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Tozpan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Writing Features: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

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

flags, banners, pantli, pamitl, plumas amarillas, amarillo, pájaros, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 833r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=741&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: