Fig. 74. Phonetic Elements derived from Pictures and used in Mexican Place Name Hieroglyphs.
tlan from tlantli, teeth cal from calli, house mix from mixtla, cloud
A few examples of Nahuan hieroglyphs will now be given to illustrate this interesting method of writing. It must be remembered that there is nothing in the nature of a connected narrative. The hieroglyphs or word pictures are limited to geographical and personal names, including the names of gods, to months, days, numbers, objects of commerce and a few objects or ideas of ceremonial import. Some of the signs are in no degree realistic and have a definite meaning by common consent alone, such as the symbol for gold ([Fig. 73]). Others are abbreviated and conventionalized pictures of objects. Thus the head of a god or of an animal frequently appears as the sign of the whole. But the most important and interesting word signs are rebuses in which separate syllables or groups of syllables are represented by more or less conventionalized pictures. The whole word picture is a combination of syllable pictures which indicate phonetically the word as a whole. Very often advantage is taken of puns on whole or partial words, while color and position are also employed to indicate sounds and syllables.
Fig. 75. Aztecan Place Names.
Caltepec Itztepec Atepec Pantepec Mistlan Itzlan Petlatlan Tecalco
In [Fig. 74] are given a few of the more common syllable pictures. The name of the object represented is cut down by the elimination of tl, li, etc., that form the nominal endings. Thus, the picture of water, atl, becomes the sign for the sound a, that of stone tetl is cut down to the syllable te. Several of these syllable pictures are combined to represent a whole word.
Fig. 76. Aztecan Day Signs.