Xipan (MH875v)

Xipan (MH875v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xipan (perhaps “Turquoise Blue Flag”), which is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a white, upright flag (panitl or pamitl) on a stick and, to the right of that, some turquoise tesserae (xiuh-). Both elements may be phonetic indicators (xi- and -pan) that combine for the name Xipan (seemingly the same name as the famous Xipantecuhtli, a lord from Tlaxcala who went out to meet Cortés on his march inland in 1519). As Juan José Batalla Rosado notes (2021, 477), this is a rare occurrence where turquoise is used as the simple phonetic syllable, xi-. It remains to be determined just what the name Xipan actually means.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Batalla Rosado has raised the question of Xipan really intending Xipal (from xippalli, the turquoise blue color). Perhaps the original, now famous Xipan, from Tlaxcala, had a turquoise-blue flag insignia, and if that were the case, then the name would be fully logographic rather than perhaps partly phonetic. Further research remains to clarify this decipherment.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

po. xipan

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Xipan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
xi syllable from xihuitl
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Color names
Flags, banners
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Turquoise or Jade
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
tesserae (small rectangles for mosaics)
triangular
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Keywords: 

banderas, teselas, turquesas, nombres de hombres

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

Xipantecuhtli, the name or title of a man from Tlaxcala who went out to meet Cortés in 1519, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xipantecuhtli
xihu(itl), turquoise, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl-0
xippal(li), the color turquoise blue, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xippalli
pan(itl) or pam(itl), flag, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Bandera del Color Turquesa

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 875v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=823&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: 
See Also: 

Xipan (MH543v)

Xipal (MH632r)

Xipal (MH632v)

Xipal (MH796r)

Xiuhnel (MH513r)

Xopal (MH711v)

xihuitl (Osu14v)

xihuitl (Mxnus19)