The value of ancient Mexican manuscripts in the study of the general development of writing / Alfred M. Tozzer.

  • Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston), 1877-1954.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The value of ancient Mexican manuscripts in the study of the general development of writing / Alfred M. Tozzer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Fig. 12. value. In all the examples of place names given the different syllables of the term have been expressed directly by pictures of objects or acts, by position, or by color. Some other method has to be employed when one desires to bring out a meaning where it is not possible to translate the idea directly by a picture or by any of the other means we have noted. The town Tollan, “the place of the rushes/’ is easily represented by a picture of a cluster of reeds, tollin. Supposing, however, a town called Toltitlan, meaning “near Tollan,'” was the one to be written. This would be more difficult to express in picture form. The use of the homophone comes in here, words of a similar sound but with different mean- ings. The word tetlan means “near something” and the second syllable, tlan, is also found in tlantli, meaning “ teeth.” Thus if the picture of some teeth (fig. 12) is shown, the sound tlan would be expressed, suggesting in this case the mean- ing, not of teeth, but of nearness. There is another word for “near” or “near by,” nauac. A place named Quauhnauac has the meaning, “in or near the forest.” Quauh is the root of the word quauitl, tree. The termination nauac is supplied by the sign of “clear speech” (fig. 13), which is a second meaning of nauac. A variant of this place name is shown in the Aubin manuscript (fig. 14). Here there is an animal head with the leaves of the tree shown on top. Speech is represented as in the preceding form. An interesting class of diminutives is formed in the same way by the use of the homophone zinco as in Tollanzinco, meaning “Little Tollan.” The use of determinatives is not found to express the special meaning of the word which is to be used as is the case in the Egyptian writing of the same class. We find in the place names we have been con- sidering the beginning of a syllabary, certain char- acters always used for certain combinations of sounds. These signs not only express. single syllables but in a few cases, as in tepee and nauac, double syllables, and, a from ail, single sounds. The adoption of certain definite signs to express certain combinar- tions of sounds is a step far in advance of the stage of pure picture writing and it is well on its way toward the adoption of an alphabet where the signs no longer express combinations of sounds but single sounds. It might be possible to go a step farther in the case of the