atl (Mdz27r)
This element for water (atl) has been carved from the compound place name Atenco. The water is actually contained within an apantli (which has no phonetic role) in this place name. It is a container for the water, and it provided a niche in the original compound. The apantli has a yellow, trapezoidal shape, suggestive of construction rather than a natural shape. The turquoise-blue water has black lines of varying thicknesses that undulate somewhat, perhaps to convey waves and/or currents (movement). The top right and left ends of the water's yellow liner are curling.
Stephanie Wood
The lining of canals can vary in the colors and number of layers, as shown in other examples, below.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
canales, agua, construcción
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
apan(tli), waterway or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
el agua
Codex Mendoza, folio 27 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 64 of 188.
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).
