Chilacachapan (Mdz37r)

Chilacachapan (Mdz37r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Chilacachapan has three prominent visual features. The first, on top, is a horizontal, red chile pepper (chilli) with a green stem, providing the phonetic start to the name ("Chil"). In the water canal (apantli), which is outlined in red and has turquoise-blue water with horizontal, wavy black lines of current (two especially thick black lines in the middle), and what appear to be three aquatic plants [perhaps chilacaxitl), green and with a starry shape. They look much like fairy moss, sometimes identified as "Azolla Caroliniana." The rendition of water in this glyphs does not have the droplets/beads and turbinate shells that are often splashing off the top of the waterway.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The -x- ending on the stem for chilacaxitl is different from the -ch ending of the root of Chilacachapan, but the sound is similar. We do also have a perfectly good name for the water channel here, (apantli), which provides the -apan ("in, at, or on the waters of") locative suffix to the place name.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

chilacachapā, puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Chilacachapan, pueblo (Chilacachapa, Guerrero, today)

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Writing Features: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

acuatic plants, plantas acuáticas, agua, canals, canales

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Water of the Chilacaxtli" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 177)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"En el Agua de los Helechos Acuáticos"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

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).