Cuencuech (MH714r)

Cuencuech (MH714r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the personal name, Cuencuech (perhaps, “Furrow Snake”), shows a horizontal rectangle divided in half. Three vertical borders that are painted yellow partially frame the square in each half. The left square has two opposing volutes, perhaps representing ilhuia, to say. The square on the right is dotted, resembling an agricultural parcel, perhaps referring to the cuemitl in the name, whose root is Cuen-. The -cuech part of the name is not shown visually, especially if it refers to an innocuous snake.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This glyph requires further research. The two-part rectangle resembles some of the pieces of writing that may capture a tlacuilo’s effort to show a screenfold codex. In the tlacuilolli from MH606v, the dots on the page are possibly not about agriculture but about writing. So, here, too, the dots could represent writing, while the volutes represent speech. Nothing seems to point to cuecuech in the meaning of mischievous. We have inserted the -n- that converts the first syllable into cuen- (contrary to what the gloss shows), primarily because of the visual relating to an agricultural parcel or parcels.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

maria cuecuech (or cuecueh?)

Gloss Normalization: 

María Cuencuech (?), or Cuecueh (?)

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
Syntax: 
adjective
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Agriculture, Gardens, Stockraising
Gender (female)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)
Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
rectangular
volute(s)
dotted, granular, textured
bird's eye view
Keywords: 

agricultura, surcos, tierras, parcelas, sementeras, nombres de mujeres

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

cuem(itl), agricultural field, furrows, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuemitl
cuech, an innocuous snake, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuech
cuechtic, something ground up, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuechtic
cuecuech, mischievous, shameless, or insolent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuecuech

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Traviesa

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 714r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=506&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: