Panotlan (Mdz38r)

Panotlan (Mdz38r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Panotlan involves two principal elements. One is a vertical water flow, likely a river. Cutting across the river is a footprint, indicating the verb pano, to cross, cross over, swim across. The locative suffix (-tlan) is not shown visually, but perhaps the landscape provides a semantic locative. The water has the standard white turbinate shells and white water droplets/beads splashing off and the black lines of varying thickness that suggest flow or currents. The footprint is black, although the turquoise blue paint on the river covers the foot somewhat.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The water (atl) does not apparently enter into the phonetic value of the place name; it appears there to help convey the meaning of the verb (pano), of crossing over, as does the foot. Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tepal, tetepotztoca, totoco, otlatoca, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

panotlan.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Panotlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual, but represented semantically)
verb
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Footprint(s), human
Movement
Names (places)
Shells
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Transportation, Travel, Roads
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
vertical, upright
bird's eye view
horizontal
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

crossings, cruzar, cruces del río, cruce del río, huellas de pie, footprints

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

pano, to cross, cross over, swim across, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pano
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Place of River Fords" (concurring with Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Place of River Fords" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 198)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"Donde Se Cruza el Río"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 38 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 86 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).

See Also: 

pano (Mdz38r)

pano (Mdz43r)

atl (Mdz38r)