yucatan etymology

[John Sullivan, Ph.D.]

David,
	I assume that the root of this "-yohcauh" from Fran's dictionary is  
the preterite agentive "-yoh", "owner of/covered with". Since it's a  
preterite agentive the only locative it could take would be "-n",  
giving "yohcan", which I have never seen by itself, only with imbeds,  
such as "tizatl", "chalk", "tizayohcan", "place covered with chalk".  
If indeed, "yucat(l)an" is a Nahuatl word, and it has the "-t(l)an"  
locative, there would be six possible roots, "yocatl", "yocahtli",  
"yohcatl", "yohcahtli", "yocaitl", or "yohcaitl". I haven't seen any  
of these.
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
Tacuba 152, int. 47
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
México
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www.idiez.org.mx





On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:04 PM, Frye, David wrote:

> Dear nahuatlatos:
>
> I'd like your professional opinion(s) on the following statement,  
> which I frankly find dubious: "The name Yucatan comes from the  
> Nahuatl language Yokatlān, meaning 'place of richness'." The source  
> cited is Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The  
> Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University  
> Press. Pg. 403. I cannot see how "Yokatlān" would mean "place of  
> riches" in Nahuatl. I assume Campbell was analyzing it as yohcā 
> (tia) "riches" + -tlan "place of", but (from the invaluable  
> Karttunen's dictionary) yohcā(tia) means "to take possession of, to  
> appropriate," so by extension I can imagine it meaning  
> "possession," which is not at all the same thing as "riches."  
> Opinions?
>
> Many thanks, David Frye
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nahuatl mailing list
> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl

J




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