Chiyauhcoatl (MH711r)

Chiyauhcoatl (MH711r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This colorful compound glyph for the personal name, Chiyauhcoatl (“Swamp Snake” or “Venomous Snake”), is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a circular body of water, which must represent the marsh or swamp (chiyahuitl). It is swirling with lines of current (movement), and it throws of two types of white turbinate shells with small yellow patches at their bases. Inside the water is a snake (coatl) with a single coil, a yellow and black spotted body, a bifurcated tongue, and a small rattler at the end of its tail.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

thome chiyauhcouatl

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bifurcated
bird's eye view
facing upward
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
spotted or mottled
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inward (from outside in)
Keywords: 

serpientes, nombres de hombres, agua, cohuatl

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

chiyahu(itl), swamp or marsh, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiyahuitl
coa(tl), snake or serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
chiyauhcoa(tl), a viper or venomous snake, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiyauhcoatl

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 711r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=500&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: