Tepan (MH520r)

Tepan (MH520r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name (Toribio) Tepan (perhaps "On Someone") shows a horizontal stone, with its hallmark curling ends and diagonal stripes, and a rectangular, vertical banner on a stick coming up from the rock. The banner is white. The stone is half red (or a dark pink). The stripe in the middle of the stone has diagonal hash marks across it.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Here, Tepan suggests a reading of Stone-Banner, but this could be a rebus for wall or boundary (tepantli). It can also mean "On Someone." Tepan onoc refers to someone who is "infamous," but literally means to lie down on someone, and may refer to male homosexuality. See our entry for the name Tepanonoc.

Tepan is a Nahua personal name, preceded in the gloss by a Christian first name (Toribio). He may have been named after Toribio de Benavente, also known as Motolinia ("One Who is Poor or Afflicted"). This was the first word he learned in Nahuatl, and he went on to learn the language well. He lived in the monastery in Huejotzingo. Doing a quick search for the name "Toribio" will produce an impressive result.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

torio tepā

Gloss Normalization: 

Toribio Tepan

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: 
homophony, rebus
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Flags, banners
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Christian)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
pink
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
frontal view
rectangular
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

flags, banners, banderas, piedras, muros, cercas, linderos

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
pan(itl), flag/banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panitl
-pan, in or on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan
tepan(tli), wall/fence or boundary, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepantli
tepan, on someone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepan
tepan onoc, an infamous person, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepan-onoc
onoc, lying down or stretched out, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/onoc

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Piedra-Bandera, o El Lindero, o El Muro

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 520r, World Digital Library.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=119&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: 

tepantli (Mdz27r)

tetl (Mdz18r)

panitl (Mdz20v)