Xochicuauhtitlan (Mdz50r)

Xochicuauhtitlan (Mdz50r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Xochicuauhtitlan ("Near the Flowering Tree") consists of a tree (cuahuitl)] with an orange trunk and branches, three of them with yellow flowers (xochitl) at the ends, and one smaller branch, leaning or our left, with two-tone green foliage. The yellow flowers have small concentric circles at their base and two small circles each, at their tips. The red curling roots of the tree are above ground. The tree trunk has an open mouth with teeth (tlantli) in it, providing the phonetics for the locative suffix, -tlan.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The flowers on this tree look very much like the liquid ambar glyph that appears elsewhere in this collection (see below for a visual link).

Gordon Whittaker (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 102) has discovered that the full set of teeth (top and bottom) are used, as here, most often when there is a ligature (-ti-) before the locative suffix -tlan. The place name may refer to generic trees that flower, or it may refer to a specific flowering tree, the xochicuahuitl).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

xochiquauhtitlan
pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Xochicuauhtitlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

ligature -ti- (visual)

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

roots are visible

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

tripartite

vertical, upright

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

flowers, trees, flowering, teeth, red roots, branches, flores, árboles, dientes, raíces, ramas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xochi(tl), flower(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
cuahui(tl), tree(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
xochicuahui(tl), flowering tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochicuahuitl
-ti- (ligature), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ti
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cerca del Árbol Florido

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 50 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 110 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).