Coatl (MH638v)

Coatl (MH638v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Coatl ("Serpent," attested here as male) shows a snake in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. A fang and a bifurcated tongue protrude from its mouth. The middle of its body is coiled, and it has a rattler tail. Coatl is a day name in the 260-day religious divinatory calendar.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Here, the day name is lacking its companion number (from 1-13) that would have come from the tonalpohualli (divinatory calendar). Perhaps the number was dropped to make the name appear less like a calendrical name, given that the colonial clergy was trying to suppress the use of the pre-contact calendar.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

couatl

Gloss Normalization: 

Coatl

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: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Misc.
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Tongue Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bifurcated
facing right
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

snakes, serpents, serpientes, cohuatl

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

coa(tl), snake/serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la serpiente

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 638v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=359st=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: 

Coatl (MH483v)

coatl (MH483v)

coatl (MH484v)