Cuauhtlan (Mdz10v)

Cuauhtlan (Mdz10v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for the place name Cuauhtlan has one visual element, a full-bodied eagle, in profile, facing to our left. Its mouth is open, and its legs, feet, and beak are yellow. The face has some gray feathers. Its wings are slightly raised. The majority of the bird's feathers are brown. The -tlan (locative suffix) is not shown visually here.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

There is another Cuauhtlan glyph, a compound glyph, in the Codex Mendoza on folio 13 verso. That one has an eagle's head and the two front teeth to stand for the phonetic -tlan suffix. There is also another Cuauhtlan glypn that is simply an eagle's head.
The differences of scholarly interpretation for this glyph are not great. Unlike Berdan and Anawalt, Karttunen does not see the locative suffix -tlan (which is supported by the teeth) as meaning a place of abundance of a certain thing. Karttunen preserves that reading for the locative suffix -tla. The gloss definitely supports the paleography of the -tlan suffix. That said, there are intrusive n's, and there is a noun "cuauhtla" (also spelled "cuauhtlah") which means woods, forest, wilderness, and would make a perfectly good place name.
It is worth noting that this place name uses the -tlan postposition on the stem that once had the -tli absolutive (cuauhtli, eagle). Whereas, the place name Cuauhtitlan uses the -titlan postposition on the stem that once had the -tl absolutive (cuahuitl, tree). But in the case of Mictlan Cuauhtlan (Mdz49r), the ligature is not used, so it must not be a requirement.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quauhtlan—pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuauhtlan, 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:

phonetic possibilities

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

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

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

brown

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

Keywords:

eagles, águilas, Quauhtla, Quauhtlan, feathers, plumas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

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

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There Are Many Eagles" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 202)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 31 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).