Totonametl (MH536v)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Totonametl (“Resplendent One," i.e., the "Sun") is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a profile view of a bird (tototl) facing right. The positioning of its legs, with one raised up, suggests movement. Also, its eye and beak are open. Surrounding the bird's head are straight, radiating lines, rays of the sun (tonametl), suggesting shimmer and vibrancy.
Stephanie Wood
The bird does not have a semantic value; it serves to provide a phonetic indicator for the start of the name ("Toto-"). The longer "Totona-" start the name reduplicates the verb tona, for the sun to shine and give warmth. The -metl ending of the name comes from the noun tonametl, sun ray. The multiple rays around the bird's head provide a visual reduplication that supports the totona element and give additional visual movement to the compound. See some glyphs below that provide a similar shimmer, one that replaced the four small circles around the perimeter of larger circles for the sun, gems, mirrors, etc. See the "Shimmering Glyphs" article in the navigation bar on the left of this web page.
Stephanie Wood
esteban totonametl
Esteban Totonametl
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
sun, sol, brillar, calentar, pájaros, birds, movimiento, nombres de hombres
Totonametl, a name, "Resplendent One" (the Sun), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totonametl
toname(tl), a ray of the sun, also a name with the same meaning as Totonametl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonametl
toto(tl), bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tototol
tona, to shine and give off warmth (speaking of the sun), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tona
El Sol, El Resplandeciente
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 536v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=152&st=image
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).