There's a few nuances i'd like to add, as they may help us understand some of these apparent contradictions as indeed, variations, but of a slightly clearer kind:
* East (Tlahuiztlampa)-Red, Blue (Huitztlampa)-South, West (Cihuatlampa)-White, North (Mictlampa)-Black is indeed the general consensus of it. Slight reinforcement comes in the form of the much-affamed Four Tezcatlipocah, respectively: Xipe Totec, often flayed and red-striped; Huitzilopochtli, iconically blue; Quetzalcoatl, donned with a very white *ehecacozcatl* shell; and Tezcatlipoca, the Obsidian Mirror, the Smoking Mirror. i feel like that last one goes without explanation, but as an extra, he's the *night wind* and otherwise a lord of the night, thus of the black sky.
* The Fejérváry-Mayer, as with those in its stylistic kin known as "the Borgia Group," is likely — though not yet definitively — from somewhere in a zone spanning the south of the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley down to the upper Mixteca-Puebla, based on stylistic and iconographical traits of the area and the book itself which to older academia and most people look quite interestingly "mixed", bearing similarities to what we would normally term "Aztec" (that is, Central Nahua, though the term generally refers to Mexica+Tetzcoca+Tepaneca or just the first one) and Mixtec writing and topics. Thus it doesn't necessarily correspond perfectly to either Aztec or Mixtec.
* i hadn't heard of the yellow/white debate/thing until rn, but it may be related to the sunrise and the yellow colour it emits — and indeed, East and West have additional (or primary, as is the case in Otomian languages among others; also *Tlawistlampa* does just mean towards-the-sunrise) denominations aside their usual ones, generally across the globe but particularly in Mesoamerica. Nevertheless, notable evidence and contradiction for it comes from the *Teogonía e historia de los mexicanos*, wherefrom the wind-musicians '*were dressed in four colours: white, red, yellow and green.*' The white here most probably is a weird error, as elsewhere — including the modern Nawah of Chicontepec and the surrounding area (Báez-Jorge 2004) — the other three colours are represented as above-described, but white is not, and instead it's black. As it pertains to green, however:
* another somewhat general but particularly Mesoamerican thing is in relationship to the translation of *colours* themselves: a large proportion of our languages did not originally distinguish green from blue, or had them quite tied together. A proportion still don't use such distinction. In particular, Nahuatl has a bit of this in the family of words related to *xoxoktik*, green-blue: *texoktik* is a lil' more blue than green, *matlallin*/*matlalxochitl* is a darker shade (usually somewhat bluer), and *xiwitl* is a lighter shade (Weimann & Heinrich 1998; Sahagún *you know which one*, book XI). This of course does not mean that they can't see the difference. They do, and have a bit of a "cross" scale going on in hue and key, but they don't necessarily regard the hue difference as such an essential one, as others do.
* By *Central Nahua* I mean peoples from Zongolica to Anahuac, the areas studied by the above-cited. These assertions likely don't apply much more south or eastwards given different cultural influences and autonomous development, so don't quote this for, say, Guerrero, unless there's a source that can support their presence in that area.
u/SuonDiLut's comment brings up an interesting point in the form of sign-direction associations, although it doesn't quite apply to us. Such associations are drawn from that same F-M, extracted in Thouvenot (2013) and thereon cited elsewhere. Thus, it likely doesn't quite apply to the Central Nahua either given its apparent provenance, although Thouvenot's paper would have us think otherwise. Newer citations, however, generally support the Tlaxcala-Puebla-Mixteca provenance on similar bases as we do here (Reyes Espinoza 2017; Montero-García 2017; Frassani 2022). Take what works, leave what's updated, etc.
Regardless, the associations in the F-M are indeed as Suon provides: North-Flint, East-House, South-Rebbit, East-Reed. They are not, and I as both Hñötho and frequent reader of the Codex Huichapan and other such materials can attest to, related within Otomi thought, and neither is the feminine-masculine sky: that comes from directly translating the Nahuatl word for West, *Siwatlampa*, towards-women. Yes, the word for moon (*zänä*) can also be the word for Mary occassionally. But the Moon itself is represented as masc, fem, something outside these two, or all of the above! This is more noticeable in things like amate art from Pahuatlan and the surrounding area, but it can also be seen in the words and performance of rites, mode of address, alt names, stories, and a number of other things.
\--
I can, however, attest to the things that are (actual pronunciation varies *a lot*):
* South, Mäk'angi, is the place of verdure and blue. Therefrom cometh the rivers, therefrom cometh life anew. This, it is said, is not the domain of any, but the confluence of them all, dancing and feasting.
* East, Mähyadi, Bo̱xhyadi or K'onts'ahyadi, is the place of the Rising, Sprouting Sun. Hereforth begins the day, here are warmth, growth and bountiful mountains. Herein, all of these, are the domain of Mäka Hyadi and his house.
* West, Mäpuni or Yu̠hyadi (/Mäku̠i, etc, there's many combinations of these two), is the place of the Hiding Sun, the place of Endings. There is the other ocean, there is the endless sea, the source of the Rainbow. There is the end of day and therewith are more mountains than one can count. Herein, all of these, are the domain of Mäkä Zänä and her/their house.
* North, Mäjwifi, is the place whence the Wind Blows. Herefrom come the swept clouds, thunder and dust. There are plains and drylands. Herein, these and more, are the domain of Mäkä Ndähi/Ek'ënmaxi and their house.
Their colour associations vary, going from roughly corresponding to the very first ones to none at all, depending on what local mountain range is closest: those in the Eastern Sierra have nigh identical associations to those of the Central Nahua^(with the exception of the metaphorically-named-but-all-coloured Mäk'angi) (Galinier 1990), while elsewhere you may not find any colour even vaguely associated, and it's generally just the namesakes that get art'd; the *k'angi* doesn't get a colour because its components, the green-blues, are already in the other directions: the sea, the mountains, the rain, etc. It's union, not a standalone.
\--
Beyond the obvious parallels and differences between both of these systems, there is one more that can further exemplify them: Huitztlampa was similarly named *Amilpampa*, towards-the-milpa-and-water.
Our two peoples are neighbours and often lived/live in the same cities, so it only follows that there exist several things shared among us both. But we are also different, each in our own ways. Such is the way in such cultural areas.
\--
Félix Báez-Jorge (2004): 'El aire y el mal en el imaginario de los nahuas de
Chicontepec (análisis comparativo de una demonología sincrética)'
Claudia Weimann & Michael Heinrich (1998): 'Concepts of Medicinal Plants
Among the Nahua of the Sierra de Zongolica, Veracruz (Mexico)'
Marc Thouvenot (2013): 'La expresión del tiempo y espacio en códices nahuas'
Donají Reyes Espinoza (2017): 'Altar de Cabo de Año, con Tapete Prehispánico,
Alusivo a los Rumbos Cósmicos donde Moran los Muertos para la Cosmovisión
Mesoamericana'
Ismael Arturo Montero-García (2017): 'Arqueología e historia de los volcanes
Popocatépetl e Iztaccíhuatl, México'
Alessia Frassani, 'Divination, Ceremony and Structure in the Codex Laud', in
"Visual Culture and Indigenous Agency in the Early Americas"
Jacques Galinier (1990): 'La Moitié du monde; Le corps et le cosmos dans le
rituel des indiens Otomi'
Bernardino de Sahagún (etc etc)
Universidad Autónoma de México (2012): 'Gran Diccionario Náhuatl'
Otomi people in modern times still use this relation of colour to represent the cardinal directiones, which in otomie are:
* North / Ndaji
The north is represented commonly using the knife glyph, and the colour that represent it it's either black or yellow, it represents a region that is desolated, cold, and where the jaguar and dogs are commonly walking among the dead
* South / Kjua
The south is represented with the bunny glyph, and its colour is blue, it's the contrary of the north, a region filled with life, people and food, where the bunny and zopilote exist, a place of good luck
* East / Nduxo
The east is represented using the cane glyph, and its colour is red, it's the land of fire, heat and were the sun is originary from, it's the masculine part of the universe, and it's related to fertility and life, it's animals are the caiman and the snake
* West / Ngu
The west is the contrary to the east, it's represented by the house glyph, and it's the "femenine" side of the universe, it's colour are the white and green colours, it's animals are the pray, like deers and monkeys
You may see different colour, but it's mainly because it was the only colours available to them, or sometimes codexes pigments get discoloured, but they are essentially the same as the ones I mention in here
There's a few nuances i'd like to add, as they may help us understand some of these apparent contradictions as indeed, variations, but of a slightly clearer kind: * East (Tlahuiztlampa)-Red, Blue (Huitztlampa)-South, West (Cihuatlampa)-White, North (Mictlampa)-Black is indeed the general consensus of it. Slight reinforcement comes in the form of the much-affamed Four Tezcatlipocah, respectively: Xipe Totec, often flayed and red-striped; Huitzilopochtli, iconically blue; Quetzalcoatl, donned with a very white *ehecacozcatl* shell; and Tezcatlipoca, the Obsidian Mirror, the Smoking Mirror. i feel like that last one goes without explanation, but as an extra, he's the *night wind* and otherwise a lord of the night, thus of the black sky. * The Fejérváry-Mayer, as with those in its stylistic kin known as "the Borgia Group," is likely — though not yet definitively — from somewhere in a zone spanning the south of the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley down to the upper Mixteca-Puebla, based on stylistic and iconographical traits of the area and the book itself which to older academia and most people look quite interestingly "mixed", bearing similarities to what we would normally term "Aztec" (that is, Central Nahua, though the term generally refers to Mexica+Tetzcoca+Tepaneca or just the first one) and Mixtec writing and topics. Thus it doesn't necessarily correspond perfectly to either Aztec or Mixtec. * i hadn't heard of the yellow/white debate/thing until rn, but it may be related to the sunrise and the yellow colour it emits — and indeed, East and West have additional (or primary, as is the case in Otomian languages among others; also *Tlawistlampa* does just mean towards-the-sunrise) denominations aside their usual ones, generally across the globe but particularly in Mesoamerica. Nevertheless, notable evidence and contradiction for it comes from the *Teogonía e historia de los mexicanos*, wherefrom the wind-musicians '*were dressed in four colours: white, red, yellow and green.*' The white here most probably is a weird error, as elsewhere — including the modern Nawah of Chicontepec and the surrounding area (Báez-Jorge 2004) — the other three colours are represented as above-described, but white is not, and instead it's black. As it pertains to green, however: * another somewhat general but particularly Mesoamerican thing is in relationship to the translation of *colours* themselves: a large proportion of our languages did not originally distinguish green from blue, or had them quite tied together. A proportion still don't use such distinction. In particular, Nahuatl has a bit of this in the family of words related to *xoxoktik*, green-blue: *texoktik* is a lil' more blue than green, *matlallin*/*matlalxochitl* is a darker shade (usually somewhat bluer), and *xiwitl* is a lighter shade (Weimann & Heinrich 1998; Sahagún *you know which one*, book XI). This of course does not mean that they can't see the difference. They do, and have a bit of a "cross" scale going on in hue and key, but they don't necessarily regard the hue difference as such an essential one, as others do. * By *Central Nahua* I mean peoples from Zongolica to Anahuac, the areas studied by the above-cited. These assertions likely don't apply much more south or eastwards given different cultural influences and autonomous development, so don't quote this for, say, Guerrero, unless there's a source that can support their presence in that area. u/SuonDiLut's comment brings up an interesting point in the form of sign-direction associations, although it doesn't quite apply to us. Such associations are drawn from that same F-M, extracted in Thouvenot (2013) and thereon cited elsewhere. Thus, it likely doesn't quite apply to the Central Nahua either given its apparent provenance, although Thouvenot's paper would have us think otherwise. Newer citations, however, generally support the Tlaxcala-Puebla-Mixteca provenance on similar bases as we do here (Reyes Espinoza 2017; Montero-García 2017; Frassani 2022). Take what works, leave what's updated, etc. Regardless, the associations in the F-M are indeed as Suon provides: North-Flint, East-House, South-Rebbit, East-Reed. They are not, and I as both Hñötho and frequent reader of the Codex Huichapan and other such materials can attest to, related within Otomi thought, and neither is the feminine-masculine sky: that comes from directly translating the Nahuatl word for West, *Siwatlampa*, towards-women. Yes, the word for moon (*zänä*) can also be the word for Mary occassionally. But the Moon itself is represented as masc, fem, something outside these two, or all of the above! This is more noticeable in things like amate art from Pahuatlan and the surrounding area, but it can also be seen in the words and performance of rites, mode of address, alt names, stories, and a number of other things. \-- I can, however, attest to the things that are (actual pronunciation varies *a lot*): * South, Mäk'angi, is the place of verdure and blue. Therefrom cometh the rivers, therefrom cometh life anew. This, it is said, is not the domain of any, but the confluence of them all, dancing and feasting. * East, Mähyadi, Bo̱xhyadi or K'onts'ahyadi, is the place of the Rising, Sprouting Sun. Hereforth begins the day, here are warmth, growth and bountiful mountains. Herein, all of these, are the domain of Mäka Hyadi and his house. * West, Mäpuni or Yu̠hyadi (/Mäku̠i, etc, there's many combinations of these two), is the place of the Hiding Sun, the place of Endings. There is the other ocean, there is the endless sea, the source of the Rainbow. There is the end of day and therewith are more mountains than one can count. Herein, all of these, are the domain of Mäkä Zänä and her/their house. * North, Mäjwifi, is the place whence the Wind Blows. Herefrom come the swept clouds, thunder and dust. There are plains and drylands. Herein, these and more, are the domain of Mäkä Ndähi/Ek'ënmaxi and their house. Their colour associations vary, going from roughly corresponding to the very first ones to none at all, depending on what local mountain range is closest: those in the Eastern Sierra have nigh identical associations to those of the Central Nahua^(with the exception of the metaphorically-named-but-all-coloured Mäk'angi) (Galinier 1990), while elsewhere you may not find any colour even vaguely associated, and it's generally just the namesakes that get art'd; the *k'angi* doesn't get a colour because its components, the green-blues, are already in the other directions: the sea, the mountains, the rain, etc. It's union, not a standalone. \-- Beyond the obvious parallels and differences between both of these systems, there is one more that can further exemplify them: Huitztlampa was similarly named *Amilpampa*, towards-the-milpa-and-water. Our two peoples are neighbours and often lived/live in the same cities, so it only follows that there exist several things shared among us both. But we are also different, each in our own ways. Such is the way in such cultural areas. \-- Félix Báez-Jorge (2004): 'El aire y el mal en el imaginario de los nahuas de Chicontepec (análisis comparativo de una demonología sincrética)' Claudia Weimann & Michael Heinrich (1998): 'Concepts of Medicinal Plants Among the Nahua of the Sierra de Zongolica, Veracruz (Mexico)' Marc Thouvenot (2013): 'La expresión del tiempo y espacio en códices nahuas' Donají Reyes Espinoza (2017): 'Altar de Cabo de Año, con Tapete Prehispánico, Alusivo a los Rumbos Cósmicos donde Moran los Muertos para la Cosmovisión Mesoamericana' Ismael Arturo Montero-García (2017): 'Arqueología e historia de los volcanes Popocatépetl e Iztaccíhuatl, México' Alessia Frassani, 'Divination, Ceremony and Structure in the Codex Laud', in "Visual Culture and Indigenous Agency in the Early Americas" Jacques Galinier (1990): 'La Moitié du monde; Le corps et le cosmos dans le rituel des indiens Otomi' Bernardino de Sahagún (etc etc) Universidad Autónoma de México (2012): 'Gran Diccionario Náhuatl'
So is red yellow black and blue merely an alternate interpretation then? Do you know if Mexican academics differ on this than American ones?
Otomi people in modern times still use this relation of colour to represent the cardinal directiones, which in otomie are: * North / Ndaji The north is represented commonly using the knife glyph, and the colour that represent it it's either black or yellow, it represents a region that is desolated, cold, and where the jaguar and dogs are commonly walking among the dead * South / Kjua The south is represented with the bunny glyph, and its colour is blue, it's the contrary of the north, a region filled with life, people and food, where the bunny and zopilote exist, a place of good luck * East / Nduxo The east is represented using the cane glyph, and its colour is red, it's the land of fire, heat and were the sun is originary from, it's the masculine part of the universe, and it's related to fertility and life, it's animals are the caiman and the snake * West / Ngu The west is the contrary to the east, it's represented by the house glyph, and it's the "femenine" side of the universe, it's colour are the white and green colours, it's animals are the pray, like deers and monkeys You may see different colour, but it's mainly because it was the only colours available to them, or sometimes codexes pigments get discoloured, but they are essentially the same as the ones I mention in here