Ecamalacotl (MH640r)

Ecamalacotl (MH640r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Ecamalacotl (perhaps "Whirlwind," attested here as a man's name) shows a pair of intersecting sticks, one vertical and one horizontal. The horizontal one has two flags on it, one facing up and one facing down. The flags have short parallel lines on them. An object also appears at the top of the vertical stick. The result would seem to be an apparatus that spins, moved by wind (ehecatl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

As is often the case, the wind that would make the flags spin is represented by the "Eca-" at the start of the name. In early vocabularies, ecatl typically means air or breath, and ehecatl, with the reduplication, means wind. But even when ehecatl might be meant, it is abbreviated as ecatl. The remaining part of the name (-malacotl) is reminiscent of malacatl (a spindle, bobbin, spiral). The banners (panitl) do not play a phonetic role.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Ecamalacotl

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Movement

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weather, Climate

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

Keywords:

movimiento, whirlwinds, torbellinos, flags, banners, banderas, girando, spinning, turning, espiral, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ecamalaco(tl), whirlwind, an apparatus that spins in the wind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecamalacotl
eca(tl), air, breath, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecatl
eheca(tl), wind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ehecatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

El Torbellino

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 640r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=362&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: