Tzinacantlan (Mdz15v)

Tzinacantlan (Mdz15v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Tzinacantlan features a biting bat (tzinacan) standing in semi-profile and facing to the viewer's left. Its wings are raised, and it is painted a lavender or light purple. Its eye and mouth are open, it is white, and its fangs/teeth are white. It has a turned-up nose and a short tail. Its wings are pointed in multiple places. The locative suffix -tlan (place) is not shown visually, unless the bat's teeth double as both a reference to biting and a phonetic representation of the suffix.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çinacantlan.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Tzinacantlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
purple (light)/lavender
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiky
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

bats, murciélagos, Zinacantlan, Çinacantlan

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tzinacan, biting bat, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzinacan
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Bat Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There Are Many Bats" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Murciélago Mordedor"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 41 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).