Nawatl placenames far from the Nawatl-speaking area (was: RE: [Nahuat-l] Nahuatl movies)

[ANTHONY APPLEYARD]

--- David Becraft <david_becraft at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Something to think about is that many Nawa speaking people have been
> trading back and forth up and down Anahuac for centuries. ...
> Think of some place names in California like "Mexicali" which is
> clearly a nahuatl word meaning "house of Mexi". Some traditions also
> have Nahuas traveling and having nahuatl placenames like Seattle
>(Ce-Atl), and Michigan (Michican) among many.

Some of these could be coincidences.
- Mexicali could be a mixtue of "Mexico" and "Cali-(fornia)": there is
a town "Calexico" which is the opposite mixture. 
- Seattle was named after a local Amerindian chief: see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle
- Coalinga in California looks Nahuatl but is a short form of "Coaling
station A" (for railway locomotives, as coal is or was mined there.)

> Could this explain why the nanny was speaking nahuatl in California

One Nahuatl-sspeaking nanny in California could be one stray recent
immigrant.

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