Calatlaxoxiuhco (Verg14r)

Calatlaxoxiuhco (Verg14r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Calatlaxoxiuhco (“At the Place of Green Frogs,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a building or house (calli) facing toward the viewer's right. Below the calli is a foot (providing the phonetic syllable, xo) in a sandal. A stream of water (atl) emerges from the calli. It has the typical, alternating shells and droplets or beads splashing off of it. To the right of the water is a pair of front teeth (tlantli), providing the locative for "place of frogs." The remaining element is a hand grabbing the water from the right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The grasping hand can represent the syllable "hua" in some cases. Perhaps this was the "hua" of xihua, which became "xiuh" before the added locative "co." The "-co" is not shown visually (unless the house doubles as a part of the place name and a semantic locative). A xihuacalco is mentioned in the Florentine Codex as a turquoise house.

This place name is broken in two on a website relating to Tepetlaoztoc, referring to the Codex Vergara: “1544: Fue presentado el Códice Vergara que trata del apeo y deslinde de los terrenos del barrio de San Jerónimo Chimalpa. Integrado por Callatla Xoxiuhco, Topotitla, Teocaltitla, Patlachiauca y Texcaltipac.” [See: https://mexico.pueblosamerica.com/i/tepetlaoxtoc-de-hidalgo/.]

The ”xoxiuh” is found in the account of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, referring to the ilhuicatl xoxiuhqui (“sky blue”), even though the word is really xoxouhqui, green, in most cases. Of course, green and blue are often seen as shades of the same color in Nahuatl. [See: Primo Feliciano Velázquez, La aparición de Santa María de Guadalupe, 1931, 163.]

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

near Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

verde, lugar de ranas, casas, edificios, agua

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En el Lugar Verde de las Ranas (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 
Image Source, Rights: 

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Historical Contextualizing Image: