Aztec script facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Aztec
Type	Pictographic and logophonetic
Spoken languages	Nahuatl
Time period	Most extant manuscripts from the 16th century
Sister systems	Mixtec writing
Unicode range	U+15C00 to U+15FFF (tentative)[1]
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Aztec script (also called Nahuatl script) was a special way of writing used by the Nahua people in central Mexico. This was long before Christopher Columbus arrived. It mixed different types of signs: pictures, symbols for ideas, and signs for sounds.

How Did Aztec Writing Begin?

The Aztec writing system came from older ways of writing in Central Mexico. One of these was the Zapotec script. The Mixtec writing system also likely came from Zapotec. The first writings found in Oaxaca are thought to be Zapotec. This is partly because of how numbers were used, which is typical for Zapotec languages.

What Was Aztec Writing Like?

Aztec writing used lots of pictures and symbols to show ideas. It also had signs that stood for sounds, like a puzzle where pictures make words (called a rebus). There was no alphabet like ours. But the Aztecs used wordplay to record sounds from their language.

Some experts used to think it wasn't a "full" writing system. But now, we know it had many signs for words (logograms) and syllables. This shows it had a strong phonetic (sound-based) side. Many of these sound signs have been known since at least 1888.

These word and syllable signs appear on painted and carved objects, like the Tizoc Stone. Often, these sound signs are part of a larger picture or artwork. In old Aztec books, a line of footprints showed how historical events moved from one place or time to another.

Showing Ideas with Pictures

The Aztec writing system was great at showing ideas with pictures. For example:

• Death was shown as a body wrapped for burial.
• Night was a black sky with a closed eye.
• War was a shield and a club.
• Speech was a small scroll coming from a person's mouth.
• Movement or walking was shown by a trail of footprints.

Using Rebus Puzzles

Aztec writers often used a picture (a glyph) to stand for a different word that sounded the same or very similar. This is like a rebus puzzle. You can see this clearly in the names of towns.

For example, the glyph for Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, combined two pictures:

• A stone (te-tl)
• A cactus (nochtli)

Together, these pictures sounded like "Tenochtitlan."

Reading Aztec Glyphs

Unlike Maya hieroglyphs, Aztec glyphs didn't have a fixed reading order. You could read them in any direction that made sense for the word. However, the signs within a single word always followed each other in the correct sound order. They didn't mix up the sounds within a word.

How Aztecs Wrote Numbers

The Aztec number system was based on the number 20. This is called a vigesimal system.

• They used dots to show numbers up to 20.
• A flag symbol meant 20. They repeated the flag for numbers up to 400.
• A sign like a fir tree, meaning "as many as hairs," stood for 400.
• The next unit, 8,000, was shown by an incense bag. This referred to the countless cacao beans in a sack.

Recording History

The Aztecs loved to record history using maps. These maps were very detailed and showed historical events. They were painted to be read in a certain order. This way, time was shown by moving through the map or by looking at a series of maps.

The Aztecs also kept track of events year by year. They would paint all the years in a line, usually from left to right. Events like solar eclipses, floods, droughts, or famines were painted around the years. Often, a line connected the event to the specific year. They didn't always name specific people. But unnamed humans were often painted to show actions or events. When individuals were named, their names often showed examples of the word and syllable signs.

Images for kids

• 

  Aztec syllabary (according to Lacadena and Wichmann, 2004)

See also

In Spanish: Escritura mexica para niños