Cuauhhuacan (Osu34v)

Cuauhhuacan (Osu34v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Cuauhhuacan ("Place Where They Have Eagles" or "Place Where They Have Trees"). There are three components. At the top is a tree (cuahuitl), a term whose stem becomes cuauh-, the same as the stem for cuauhtli (eagle). One of these two has the semantic role, and the other is a phonetic complement. Below these two elements is a green, bell-shaped hill or mountain with the horizontal red and yellow horizontal stripes at the base. The latter look much like lips. In some glyphs, water flows from this type of mouth. Together the water (atl) and hill or mountain (tepetl) could stand for altepetl (socio-political unit or ethnic state). But the sign may also simply serve as a non-specific visual locative.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The Codex Mendoza has two other examples of this same place name, and both of them also involve eagles and trees. Really, the tree or the eagle could serve as the phonetic complement. But in one (Mendoza 5 verso) the eagle is full-sized, and the tree is small, so this might support the emphasis on the eagle in the semantic role.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

quahuacan

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Cuauhhuacan

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 dimensions

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

facing right

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

undetermined as yet

Keywords:

águla, árbol, árboles, cerro, cerros, montaña, montañas, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos, place names

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli
-hua (possessive suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can (locative suffix), place where, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Donde Tienen Águilas

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: