ameyalli (Mdz22r)

ameyalli (Mdz22r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for ameyalli (natural spring) also serves as the glyph for the place name, Ameyalco. It consists of water (atl) falling straight down, painted turquoise blue and with black wavy lines. The usual white water droplets and white turbinate shells splash off the sides of the main flow. The water emerges from a black line drawing of a circle.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The circle serves to indicate that the water comes from a source in the ground. The starting letter "a" in ameyalli refers to the water. A meyalli is something that gushes forth. Thus, this simplex glyph has compound features that are inherent in the term ameyalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
symmetry
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

ameyal(li), natural spring, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ameyalli
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
meyal(li), something that comes gushing forth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/meyalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

fuente de agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Alonso de Molina

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 22 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 54 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)

See Also: 

Ameyalco (Mdz22r)