Nauhacatl (MH718r)

Nauhacatl (MH718r)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph plus notation for the personal name, Nauhacatl (or Nahui Acatl, “Four Reed” or “4-Reed”), is attested here as pertaining to a man. The reed (acatl) is segmented and horizontal. The notation involves four (nahui) black upright markers, standing on the reed. The reading order is downward.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Calendrical names such as this one came from the religious divinatory calendar of pre-contact times. It was called the tonalpohualli, the day count, and it accounted for 260 days. By the time of this manuscript (1560), the clergy had been trying to suppress the use of the divinatory calendar for the naming of children, so sometimes either the companion number (1–13) or the day sign itself might drop away. But here we see continuity in the use of a calendrical name, defying the wishes of the ecclesiastics.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

numbers

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Numbers, Math

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

segmented

vertical, upright

Keywords:

nahuacatl, números, cuatro, cañas, nombres de días, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

nahui, four, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahui
aca(tl), reed or cane, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cuatro-Caña, o 4-Caña

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 718r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=514&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).

Orthography:

"v" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: