Tecpillahtolli

Pictograph

Pictograph Name




Dancing Owl




Arriving at the hill of Chapultepec



One citizen scorns another





Eating poo





Newly weds





Mother teaches daughter to weave





Exhaling Emperor




Sun covering

Meaning



Knowing a subject inside out with zero effort



When a great weight has been taken off the shoulders


Never scorn or undervalue people




A giver wants to consume again what has already left him




Showing romantic affection in greeting



To describe youth and the steps young people took towards adulthood


To describe the emperor and the importance of every word that left his lips


Death of a ruler, city, tradition or elder

Literal Translation



His nahual’s helping him




Time to bathe in Chapultepec



Never ‘belly-button’ anyone...





You can’t have your ‘cake’ and eat it





My heart becomes white, your heart becomes white



They begin to take on a face, a heart



His breath, His word





Today the sun’s covered his face

Geographical Distribution

The Sang have carried their script with them to every new place they have journey to. From Atlan, their speech changed through their time in Northern Range and then Dragonsgrave, to their new home in Sangsalgu.

Phonetics

Tecpillahtolli

Tecpillahtolli is simply a distinct rhetorical style that adds to the regular words of macehuallahtolli. It is a high rhetorical style of formal oratory speech and poetical writings and a favorite technique of the high class who use this style in diphrasal metaphors, where two phrases are symbolically combined to give rise to a new metaphorical reading. Examples include:

Sounds	Literal Translation/ Picture Description	Meaning
in xochitl, in cuicatl	the flower, the song	poetry
in cuitlapilli, in atlapalli	the tail, the wing	the common people
in toptli, in petlacalli	the chest, the box	something secret
in yollohtli, in eztli	the heart, the blood	cacao
in iztlactli, in tencualactli	the drool, the spittle	lies

Recording Rhythm

As a sub-discipline to tecpillahtolli, a drummer slave might carry papers marked only with brush strokes. They tell the slave the rhythm to beat out with his hand on the drum as accompaniment to the poet’s recital.

Brush Styles	Speakers' Effect
many small dabs of paint	murmurous
some larger strokes	sharply emphasize the words
variously commingled and variously spaced	soft throb like a heart beat in the pauses between the lines

Common Phrases

Ie onquiza naoalli: anoce ónquiz in naoalli




Ma chapultépec ninaalti




Áiac xictli in tlaltícpac






Oppa ícuitl quicua






Noyollo iiztaia, moyollo iiztaia






Ixtli, yollotli quitquitinemi




Ihíio, Itlátol




Axcan mixtlapachmana yn tonatíuh

Root Languages
Sang Picture Writing
Alternate Names:

• Lordly Speech
• Language of the Nobility
• Polite Politics
• Double Dignity

Spoken by
Sang
Teiks

Code in Nonsense

It is expected for one’s body language to show the opposite of what one means in lordly speech. Especially given that there is no officially recognized written form, the grammar is extremely elaborate.
The peruser would have to be aware of the tenants of the subject as well as the intricacies of the culture of who had spoken. You could rightly point out that there is great potential for miscommunication, which happens often; sometimes by design.
The purpose then, is not just to seem more important, but for scrupulous groups to also communicate secret information in public or to purposefully provoke a war.