Ayapan (MH530v)

Ayapan (MH530v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name or place of origin, Ayapan (perhaps "Thin Cotton Flag," attested here as a man’s name), shows a frontal view of a rectangular cloth (ayatl) with a segmented border around it. The cloth is undecorated inside the border and just left natural (not painted) by the author/artist. Underneath the cloth is a flow of water, perhaps a waterway (apantli). But, at minimum, the water is a phonetic indicator that this name begins with "A-." The water flows from the left (where there is a whirlpool or natural spring) toward the viewer's right. The three little streams have wavy lines of current (movement) and droplets/beads or shells at the tips of each stream. Perhaps the waterway is an apantli, perhaps also providing a phonetic indicator for the -pan part of the name.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Ayapan was a fairly common name. Other glyphs for this personal name appear below. It could be a place of origin. If Ayapan is not literally about a cotton flag, perhaps it refers to a perennial plant, so this could be the meaning of the name, and if so, the compound would be fully phonographic.

Gloss Image: 
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

water, agua, fabric, tela, cotton, algodón, cloaks, mantas, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Bandera de Algodón

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 
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: