Xaxalpan (Mdz20r)

Xaxalpan (Mdz20r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Xaxalpan consists of a building sitting atop a rounded hillock of sand (xalli), shown typically as a group of black dots. The building sitting "on the sandy place" is a standard calli (house, building) sign (not playing a phonetic role here). Its entryway, marked by T-shaped (probably wooden) beams, faces to the viewer's right, and the building is in profile. It is left white, except for the color of the beams, which are a terracotta or orange color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The word for sand is reduplicated in the place name, suggesting a sandy place. The -pan locative suffix may be represented by the building (calli), which does not play a phonetic role here. It is located on top of the sand, which can convey the meaning of the locative.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

xaxalpan. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Xaxalpan, 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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
reduplication (in gloss/text)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Dirt, Sand, Soil
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
rectangular
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

casas, edificios, arena

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

xal(li), sand, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xalli
-pan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 50 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).

See Also: 

calli (Mdz20r)

xalli (Mdz20r)