Quetzaltepec (Mdz16r)

Quetzaltepec (Mdz16r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Quetzaltepec includes two main elements, a group of quetzalli feathers and a hill (tepetl), upon which they stand. There are five feathers standing upright, although they are somewhat leaning to the viewer's right. Their tips have a curve. The feathers are a dark green at the base and lighter toward the top. The hill or mountain is a standard two-tone green, bell shape, with curling rocky outcroppings on the slopes, and a red and a yellow horizontal stripe near the base. The locative -c is not shown separately, but combines with -tepe- to form the locative suffix, -tepec, on the hill.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quetzaltepec.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Quetzaltepec, 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

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

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

Feathers

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

curving, curvy, curved

pointed (see also spiky)

spiky

vertical, upright

wavy

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

feathers, plumas, mountains, hills, montañas, cerros

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quetzal(li), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzalli
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec (locative suffix, on the hill of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec
-c (locative suffix), in or on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"On the Hill of the Quetzal Feathers" (concurring with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Hill of the Quetzal Feathers" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 203–204)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"En el Cerro de las Plumas del Quetzal"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 16 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 42 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).