Etymology of "Mexico"

[David Wright]

Estimado Michael:

We've already cleared that one up. In one of the hypothetical etymologies
we've been discussing (Me:xxihco or Me:xihco), /kk/ becomes /hk/, and the
/h/ requires the /i:/ to shorten, the latter change having been accepted by
consensus (in early colonial central Mexican Nahuatl at least; John raises
doubts for modern Huastecan Nahuatl). So we're back to the question of /kk/
> /hk/ being a valid morphophonological change or not.

Saludos cordiales,

David

-----Mensaje original-----
De: Michael McCafferty [mailto:mmccaffe at indiana.edu] 
Enviado el: domingo, 26 de julio de 2009 03:41 p.m.
Para: David Wright
CC: Nahuat-l (messages)
Asunto: RE: [Nahuat-l] Etymology of "Mexico"

Sorry. Just a short rejoinder. Out of curiosity I just looked up this 
place name in Karttunen's dictionary and found that she also has 
trouble accepting the "navel" explanation:

"The etymology of this [Me:xihco] is opaque. Because of the difference 
in vowel length, it cannot be derived from ME-TL 'maguey'. The sequence 
XIH also differs in vowel length from XI:C-TLI 'navel,' which has been 
proposed as a component element..."

Michael

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