Chilcuauhtla (Osu35v)

Chilcuauhtla (Osu35v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents a place with an abundance of chile pepper "trees" or "woody chiles." which may really refer to what are called "chiles de árbol" in Mexican Spanish today. These are slender, potent chile peppers with woody stems. The compound shows a tree with two overly large red chile peppers (chilli) hanging from it. This tree (cuahuitl) stands vertically atop a hill or mountain (tepetl, which may serve as a visual locative, as it does not enter into the construction of the place name). The tepetl, with is horizontal red and yellow stripes at its base, the site where a natural spring (atl) might emerge (as appears in some hieroglyphs in this digital collection), may intend to convey that this is a socio-political unit or an ethnic state (altepetl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The stem for chilli, chil-, appears in a few place names in this collection. See some examples below. The chile pepper is an age-old staple in the Mexican diet.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

chilquauhtla

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Chilcuauhtla

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:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Dogs

Food, Eating, Cooking

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

red

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

multidirectional

Keywords:

chiles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chil(li), chile pepper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilli
cuahui(tl), tree or wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
-tla, place of abundance of that thing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tla-1

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Lugar de Abundancia de Chiles de Árbol

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:

"q" for c

Historical Contextualizing Image: