tlantli (Mdz50r)
This element for teeth (tlantli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Xiloxochitlan, where it played a phonetic role in naming the locative suffix -tlan. Here, however, since we are singling out this element especially, we are naming it a logogram for teeth. We shall see if it ever appears with the intentional reading of teeth. The teeth here vary from the upper front teeth with the red gums, instead appearing as both upper and lower teeth in a mouth that is imbedded in a tree. The teeth are in a profile view, and they are white. Red gums are omitted.
Stephanie Wood
As Gordon Whittaker has recognized, the upper and lower teeth together are typically used in the Codex Mendoza to refer to the -titlan locative suffix (which includes the -ti-), and -tlan alone is represented by the upper front teeth. The original compound hieroglyph from which this element was carved, however, does not include the -ti- ligature, an exception to the rule.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
place, locative, teeth, lugares, topónimos, dientes
tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan, by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
los dientes
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 50 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 110 of 188.
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).
