Yacapichtlan (Mdz24v)

Yacapichtlan (Mdz24v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph stands for the place name Yacapichtlan (today, Yecapixtla, Morelos). The nose (yacatl) (in profile, facing the viewer's right, and painted a terracotta color) is prominent, as is the tepetl (hill, mountain), which may be serving as a silent, visual locative in place of the typical tooth glyph (tlantli) which will normally stand for the -tlan ("near") locative suffix. The insect or spider below the nose has yet to be analyzed.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The nose (yacatl) plays a phonetic role, rather than a semantic one. Likely, there is a peak, a point, or a ridge in the local landscape. The "pich" part of the place name may be represented by the ant(?) below the nose. A pichin is something small, perhaps like an insect? A bug or insect glossed "yacapich" forms another man's name in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, which could provide the root of this place name, too.

Frances Karttunen has suggested that "pix" (from piya, to have, keep) could be at the root of this part of the place name. If so, the name could refer to a place that has a peak (since yacatl can refer to a peak). Perhaps yacapich- is used in a phonetic role as a near homophone to yacapix-. Given that the other Yacapichtlan glyph retains the "n" on the locative suffix, we are assuming that it was inadvertently omitted from this gloss. The contemporary town name is Yecapixtla; it is in the state of Morelos.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

yacapichtla

Gloss Normalization:

Yacapichtlan (Yecapixtla, today)

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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

pointed (see also spiky)

profile view

facing right

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

right to left

multidirectional

Keywords:

hills, mountains, ridges, cerros, crestas, montañas, puntas, picos, insectos, bichos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

yacapich(tli), a bug or an insect, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacapichtli
yaca(tl), nose, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacatl
pich(in), something small, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pichin
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cerca del Pico de los Bichos (o Insectos) (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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).