Cuauhtlatoa (MH483r)

Cuauhtlatoa (MH483r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph expresses the personal name Cuauhtlatoa (or Cuauhtlahtoa). It shows an eagle head in profile, looking to the viewer's right. The head is mostly white, with wispy black tufts of feathers on the crown. Its eye is just an open circle, and its beak is slightly open. Below the head is a full set of teeth, uppers and lowers, joined by a surrounding gum. The teeth are also slightly open, and they are shown in a profile view, facing right. These teeth are meant to represent the verb to speak (tlatoa/tlahtoa). This entire drawing has been made in black ink and nothing is painted with colorant.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Sometimes, speech is referenced visually with speech scrolls, and teeth are often a phonetic indicator for the locative suffix -tlan (from tlantli, teeth). Thankfully, the gloss clarifies the reading of this compound glyph.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

quauhtlatoua

Gloss Normalization: 

Cuauhtlahtoa

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
verb
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
spiky
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

Cuauhtlahtoa, a famous Indigenous leader who was hanged, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtlatoa

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Águila Habla

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 483r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=45&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

cuauhtli (MH483r)

tlatoa (MH483r)