pechtli (Mdz20r)

pechtli (Mdz20r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for flooring or a building foundation (pechtli) is comprised of both stone (tetl), on the left, and a woven reed mat (petlatl), on the right. It has been carved from the compound glyph, Tepechpan.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The stone was a phonetic indicator for the Te- in Tepechpan, and it only plays a semantic role in the word pechtli, for foundation. The -pe- of petlatl could possibly trigger the phonetic pe- of pechtli, but the mat also has a semantic role in that mats were put on the floor for the purpose of sleeping or resting.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

cimientos, pisos, foundations, floors

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

pech(tli), sleeping mat, foundation, or flooring, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pechtli
petla(tl), woven mat, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/petlatl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

foundation, flooring

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 50 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).