Xochihuacan (TK207v)

Xochihuacan (TK207v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Xochihuacan (“Place with Flowers”). It is a compound with three elements, and the reading order is from right to left. On the right is a flowering plant with three flowers reaching upward from a long stem. Each flower has three visible petals and a tripartite base. Just below where the flowers attach to the stem, there is a white twisted cord or rope looped around the stem. A hand appears on the left holding onto the two ends of the cord. The hand, by grasping the cord, supplies the -hua- phonetic syllable in the middle of the place name. A white, three-dimensional sleeve covers the wrist of the hand and some way up the partial arm. The -can locative suffix is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The -can suffix means “where,” which can be “Place where…,” and here this is simplified to Place. The -hua- syllable refers to possession, which could be translated “Place that has…,” but here this is simplified to “with,” resulting in “Place with….”
Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K05_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K05_B.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

xochioacā

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Xochihuacan

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

syllable: a/atl (from atl)

syllable: hua or huan (grasping hand possessive)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Flowers

Names (places)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

tied, bound, or bundled

tripartite

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

right to left

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

flor, atadas, mano, manos, cordón, cordones, cuerda, cuerdas, nombres de lugares, topónimos, topónimo, posesión, fonetismo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
hua-, singular possessive, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can, locative suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Lugar con Flores

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights:

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: