Xilotzinco (Mdz26r)

Xilotzinco (Mdz26r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Xilotzinco has two elements. At the top appear two ears of corn (xilotl), the word for tender ears of maize before they have solidified. The maize cobs are red and yellow with those colors switched for the protruding silk at the top. They have green husks. The cobs have parallel vertical hash marks. Below the corn is the shape of the lower half of a man's body, emphasizing the buttocks (tzintli), which provides the phonetic for the -tzin suffix, usually meaning little or lower when used in place names. The -co locative suffix is not visual.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

If the -tzin- in this place name does not refer to a "little" or "lower" settlement, perhaps it is a diminutive, referring to small ears of corn. Alternatively, it could be a reverential, referring to a sacred food item, maize. Maize cobs are consistently represented in these red and yellow colors with the hash marks across the Codex Mendoza, as can be seen below, right. The hash marks give an impression of eyes, and if intentional, the artist was anthropomorphizing the maize. Googling "corn cobs" and "anthropomorphized"--or maíz elote caras--will bring up a surprising number of personified ears of maize from contemporary U.S. and Mexican sources.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

tzin(tli) as reverential suffix

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Corn, Maize

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

butts, buttocks, rear end, bottom, little, lower, maize, corn, maíz, mazorcas, elotes, nalgas, trasero

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xilo(tl), tender ears of corn, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xilotl
tzin(tli), buttocks), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzintli
-tzinco (diminutive locative), at the little or lower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzinco
-tzin (diminutive or reverential), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzin
-co (locative suffix), at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Small Tender Maize Ears" (Berdan & Anawalt, v. 1, p. 224)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 26 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 62 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).