The map below depicts the topography of the southern Nochixtlán Valley. If you were standing at the point marked by the red circle on this map, you would be standing on the ruins of a palace mound referred to by local farmers as Y od [z]o ñuviu--Plain of the Cornfield.(5) Its rather simple place sign is shown below. The substantive base is a feather ( yodzo ) mat representing a “plain” ( yodzo ). Out of this plain grows the sign’s qualifier--a stalk of corn. Plain ( yodzo ) (plus place, ñuu) plus cornfield ([hu]iyu) equals Plain of the (Place of the) Cornfield.
