Tlatoltepec (TR25v)

Tlatoltepec (TR25v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tlatoltepec (or Tlahtoltepec, with the glottal stop) comes from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. The tlatolli/tlahtolli (word, speech, statement) element is a frontal view of a horizontal row of five white teeth with red gums and, above that, a line of white. Coming out of the bottom of the teeth are white speech scrolls and some white spikes. The tepetl (hill, mountain) is bell-shaped, tall, somewhat elongated. It is painted green, and curling rocky outcroppings appears on the slopes. The horizontal line at the base of the mountain is white.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

More numerous are glyphs for the verb "to speak" (tlatoa/tlahtoa). For examples of these, see below. It is interesting that "word" is represented as oral rather than alphabetic or hieroglyphic. Oral communication was paramount in Nahua culture.

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tlatoltepetl

Gloss Normalization:

Tlahtoltepetl (or better, Tlahtoltepec)

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)

Date of Manuscript:

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Writing, Literacy

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood and Stephanie Wood

Colors:

green (light)

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

horizontal

bird's eye view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

volute(s)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

outward (from inside out)

Keywords:

words, speeches, statements, palabras, oraciones, discursos, mountains, hills, cerros, tlatolli, Tlatoltepec

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlatol(li), word, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatolli
tepe(tl), hill/mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl

Image Source:

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 25 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f76.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights:

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”