Tezmol (MH834v)

Tezmol (MH834v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tezmol is attested here as a man's name. The name has yet to be translated, but the visuals include a horizontal stone (tetl), with its usual curly ends and diagonal lines across the middle. The stone provides the phonetic value Te- to the start of the name. Above the stone is what appears to be a palm tree, perhaps a tezoyatl, provide here as a phonetic indicator for Tez- (giving somewhat more to the start of the name). The -ezmol, not shown visually, seems to come from something to do with bleeding or the flow of blood (see: ezmoloni in the Online Nahuatl Dictionary).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Perhaps, if the interpretation is correct, the visual blood-letting aspect of the name has been voluntarily suppressed by the writer, given the colonial context.

Tezmol is still a name held in Mexico today, located in a wide range of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter (or X), Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. There is also a food known as tezmole, which contains chicken, maize dough, and chiles, according to the book, Vida de María Sabina by Álvaro Estrada.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

dio tezmol

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Tezmol

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: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
frontal view
striped
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

piedras, stones, trees, árboles, palmera, nombres de hombres

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

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl-0
tezo, a bloodletter, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezo
tezoya(tl), a certain type of palm tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezoyatl
mol(li), sauce, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molli
ezmoloni, for blood to flow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ezmoloni

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 834v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=743&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: