Tozpan (MH833v)

While we have given this glyph a literal translation, it has the look of a place name, in which case the flag would have a phonetic value. If this were a place name, however, then one would expect Tozpanecatl as the name or ethnicity of the tribute payer who is indicated. And, in fact, Tozpan is a recurring name, just as it is. See, for instance, the many attestations of the name in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary.

We are watching for the use of pantli, tecpantli, panitl, and pamitl. It is a challenge to differentiate between them, for they look very much alike most of the time. For now, when the banner has an association with a number, we are using pantli or tecpantli, watching how they are glossed, and when it is a phonetic locative for a place name, we are often using panitl. Apparently panitl was more common in "Mexico, the Tepanec heartland, and perhaps Colhuacan and Chalco," and pamitl in "northern and eastern flanks of the Valley of Mexico" [see: Jorge Klor de Alva, in The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-century Aztec Mexico (Albany, NY: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, the University at Albany, State University of New York, 1988), 323]. As glyphs come in to this collection from regions where pamitl is more common, we will abide by that orthography.