Xochitonal (MH791r)

Xochitonal (MH791r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Xochitonal (“Flower-Shimmer" or a mythical lizard of Mictlan) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a flower with three petals and coming off the top and sides of the flower are an array of short black lines that indicate the shimmer and light of the sun (tonalli) radiating off the flower.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Writing Features: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

nombres de hombres, criatura mítica de Mictlan, flores, días, sol, energía solar

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

Xochitonal, a personal name and the name of a mythical creature (a lizard) in Mictlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitonal
xochi(tl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
tonal(li), life force, sun, day, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

James Lockhart (The Nahuas, 1992, 120) says Xochtonal is "Flower Fate," a name that is a poetic metaphor. Cuernavaca region, 1535–1545.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Flor de la Energía Solar

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 791r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=656&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).

Orthography: 
Historical Contextualizing Image: