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‘Codex Corner’: compound glyph

20th Mar 2024

The Aztec toponym for Tlapacoyan, Codex Mendoza

This is the toponym, or place sign, for the tributary province of Tlapacoyan, in the Codex Mendoza. It was probably conquered by Mexica ruler Motecuhzoma I in the 15th century. A mountainous region, part Nahua and part Totonac, the annual levy of goods due to Tenochtitlan was pretty small - mainly mantas (cloaks) and warrior costumes. Tlapacoyan was in fact a popular place-name in Aztec times, and it seems there were - and still are - several towns with this name in the modern Mexican states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Veracruz. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given the meaning of the word in Nahuatl: ‘Place Where Clothes Are Washed’... (Compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

As a ‘compound glyph’ it’s made up of all the four things you need if you do your laundry the old-fashioned way out in the countryside one day: you need your arms, your clothes, a good smooth stone to wash on, and finally plenty of water. Makes sense! To the Mexica, the sign would have been as visually clear and obvious as the modern symbol for washing clothes is to us today.
Unsurprisingly too, tlapacoyan is today the Nahuatl word for laundromat...

Info from:-
• The Essential Codex Mendoza by Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt, University of California Press, London, 1997
• Nombres Geográficos de México by César Macazaga Ordoño, Edit. Innovación SA, Mexico DF 1979
• Nahuatl-English Hippocrene Concise Dictionary by Fermín Herrera, Hippocrene Books, New York, 2004.

Picture sources:-
• Main image scanned from the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition of the Codex Mendoza, London
• Compound glyph image scanned from Atlas Cultural de México: Lingüística, Ed. Enrique Florescano, SEP/INAH/Editorial Planeta, Mexico, 1988 (drawings by Carlos Ontiveros and Leonardo Manrique C.)
• Inset image by André Riemann downloaded from Wikipedia (Laundry symbol).

Aztecs

Maya

‘Codex Corner’: compound glyph

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