Xocoyoltepec (Mdz41r)

Xocoyoltepec (Mdz41r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Xocoyoltepec refers primarily to a plant (xocoyolli) that was probably abundant in this region. Additional phonetic supports confirm this reading, including xo- (foot) and coyolli (bells) that were often worn for dance. The hill or mountain (tepetl) completes the phonetic components of the place name, while doubling as an indication of the location. The locative suffix (-c) (as given in the gloss) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

There is a genius in this phonetic reinforcement. The artist combines foot and bells by depicting a dancer's foot, replete with a jaguar skin (silent, but a semantic complement, borrowing Gordon Whittaker's classifier, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 75) wrapped around part of the leg above the foot. The cactli (footwear), as we have seen in other glyphs (below, right), can also represent the phonetic xo (foot).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

xocoyoltepec / pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Xocoyoltepec, 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

Semantic Categories:

graphic syllepsis

phonetic dimensions

place name

semantic complement

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

xo syllable

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

inward (from outside in)

multidirectional

Reading Order, Notes:

One begins at the top, with the plant, and moves downward to the mountain. But the phonetic reinforcements ("xo" and "coyol") require looking inward, and from the foot to the bells is a small upward movement.

Keywords:

herbs, edible plants, feet, bells, jaguar skins, footwear, sandals, shoes, hills, mountains, cactles, huaraches, piel de jaguar, cerros, montañas, hierbas, plantas comestibles, pies, campanillas, campanas, metales, oro, suenan, dancing

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xocoyol(li), sorrel, herb, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xocoyolli
xo, foot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xo
coyol(li), bell. https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coyolli
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 41 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 92 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).