Capolhuac (Osu35r)

Capolhuac (Osu35r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents a place name Capolhuac (perhaps "Where They Have Cherry Trees") or Capoloac ("At the Place Full of Cherry Trees"). The compound includes a capolin or Mexican cherry tree, and some water (atl). The locative suffix (-c) is not shown visually. The water consists of three short streams of turquoise-blue water with thin lines of current (movement) and a droplet or bead at the end of each stream. The vertical brown tree trunk stands in the water. The cherries appear in clusters, painted red. The tree has a clump of green leaves.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

It could be that the atl on this compound is intended a phonetic indicator for the -hua (possessive suffix) in the place name. If so, then the name of the place could translate as "Where They Have Cherry Trees." Berdan and Anawalt suggest that capulo means "full of cherries," and they take the water literally, which results in their translation, "In the Water Full of Cherry Trees." Capolin can refer to the tree or to its fruit. The locative suffix (-c) means on or in. The Mexican cherry has the Latin name Prunus salicifolia. Here is a photo of it, showing the red fruit.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

capolloac.

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Capulhuac

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic possibilities

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

plantas, cerezo, árbol, agua, place names, topónimo, topónimos, nombres de lugares, fonetismo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

capol(in), Mexican cherry tree or the fruit of it, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/capolin
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-hua, possessive suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-c (locative suffix), at or in, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"In the Water Full of Cherry Trees" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 176)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Donde Tienen Cerezos

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL

Orthography:

"ll" for l

"o" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: