Huehuetlan (Mdz47r)

Huehuetlan (Mdz47r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This is a simplex glyph for the place name Huehuetlan. It consists of the head of a wispy white-haired and wrinkled man. He may have some teeth missing. His face is in profile, looking to the viewer's right. His skin is terracotta-colored.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The white hair, wrinkles, and possibly missing teeth are all iconographic elements that convey to the reader that this is an elderly man (huehue). The locative suffix (-tlan) either does not appear or is implied in the showing of the man's teeth (tlantli).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

huehuetlan.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Huehuetlan, pueblo

Gloss 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:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Aging (People, Animals, Things)

Anatomy, human body parts

Gender (male)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

orange/terracotta

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiky

Keywords:

elder, old man, aging, anciano, envejecimiento

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huehue, an old man, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehue
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, or among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Old Man Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Place of Many Old Men" or "Place of the Old God" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 188)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"El Lugar del Hombre Viejo"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 104 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)