Ocoyacac (Osu34v)

Ocoyacac (Osu34v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Ocoyacac (perhaps "At Pine Ridge"). It features a vertical tree with a long brown trunk and green foliage that comes to a point at the top. Added to the tree trunk is a human nose (yacatl). This is a phonetic indicator for peak or ridge, a disyllabogram for -yaca-, to which the locative -c is added.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The reading of pine tree(s) is clear. What is less clear in some of the interpretations is that the human "nose" (yacatl) is often associated with a peak or a ridge. So, this is a community on a ridge or peak noted for pine trees, especially the pines with fat wood that were used for making torches. The glyph for Ocoyacac in the Codex Mendoza is more elaborate with details about the tree, but like this one, it adds a nose to the tree trunk.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

ocoyacac

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Ocoyacac

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)
syllables/two: yaca (from yacatl, nose)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
green (light)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

fonetismo, cresta, pico, punta, plantas, árbol, árboles, antorcha, ocote, tronco, pino, pinos, piňa, nariz, narices, nombres de lugares, place names, topónimo, topónimos

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

oco(tl), fatwood pine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ocotl
yaca(tl), nose, peak, or ridge, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacatl
-c (locative suffix), in, on, or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c
-yacac (locative suffix), on the ridge or peak, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacac

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, "En la Cresta de los Pinos"

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

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Ocoyacac (Mdz10r)