Tzinacantepec (Mdz10r)

Tzinacantepec (Mdz10r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

In this compound glyph for the place name Tzinacatepec, the head of a bat (tzinacantli) sits atop a tepetl (hill, mountain) sign. The bat is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's left. It is painted a gray/purple color. Its eye is open, its nose is turned up, its mouth is open, and two teeth or fangs are visible. The fangs are red at the base and white a the tips.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The coloring of the animal's teeth is reminiscent of the coloring of the spines on the huixachin tree. The tecpatl obsidian blade will also be found to be painted red and white in the Codex Mendoza, but the tips of these are red and the base white.

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."

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

çinacantepec, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Tzinacantepec, 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:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

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

Landscape Features

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

green (dark)

green (light)

purple (light)/lavender

red

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

bats, mountains, hills

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tzinacan(tli), bat=, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzinacantli
tepe(tl), hill, mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Tzinācantēpec, "En el monte de los murciélagos"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Miguel León-Portilla, "Los nombres de lugar en náhuatl," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 15 (1982), 40.

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 30 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).