Etymology of "Mexico"

[Michael McCafferty]

Quoting David Wright <dcwright at prodigy.net.mx>:

>>
> As for vowels before glottal stops being short, you don't need page 29 of
> Andrews 2003 to see this; it's basic Nahuatl phonology. Just run through any
> of the grammars and dictionaries that mark vowel length and glottal stops
> (Carochi, Andrews, Launey, Campbell/Karttunen, Karttunen, Wolf, and
> Bierhorst) and you'll see how it works.

David:

You didn't understand my first posting. I never once questioned this 
fact. I have always known it to be true.

It's simply that long /i:/ to short /i/ was not possible *in the 
context /kk/*, **which is as far as I could take the etymologizing of 
the "Mexicco"**.

>
> So we have one possible analysis of the toponym "Mexico" that works as "in
> the navel of the Moon", in which the optional regressive dissimilation
> proposed by Andrews (kk > hk) is not applied:
>
> Me:xxi:cco ((me:tztli - tli) + (xi:ctli - tli) (tz + x > xx) + co).
>
> In the latter analysis the only morphophonological change required is the
> regressive assimilation tzx > xx which you have accepted as "nuts-and-bolts
> Nahuatl phonetics".
>
> The second form, which depends on the optional kk > hk dissimilation, is
> essentially the same as the latter, except for the first c (/k/) becoming h
> (/?/), with the required shortening of the long vowel (i: > i).


NOPE. Not accepted. Not proven.

I would have to side with John Sullivan and says that we are dealing 
with something else.


>
> Me:xxihco ((me:tztli - tli) + (xi:ctli - tli) (i: > i) (tz + x > xx) + co (c
> + c > hc).
>
> Either form, Me:xxi:cco or Me:xxihco, can be translated "in the navel of the
> Moon". Either would have usually been written "Mexico" in standard
> "Franciscan" orthography, since long vowels were not marked, glottal stops
> were rarely written, and double consonants were usually written as single.
> (Exceptionally, I've seen xx in Franciscan orthography, e.g. "inimexxaiac"
> (in i:mexxa:yac), "su cara [máscara] de [piel de] muslo", in book 2, chapter
> 30 of the Florentine Codex.)
>
> In support of Me:xxihco, we have Carochi (book 3, chapter 11) writing
> Me:xihco (I've changed his macron into a colon for the long e, and his
> accent over the i to an h to sneak it by the Internet gremlins; these don't
> alter the underlying phonology.) This is not a typo. In book 1, chapter 2,
> he writes Mexihcatl (person from the city of Mexico) and Mexihcah (people
> from the city of Mexico). Here he seems to have forgotten to mark the long
> vowels; in book 3, chapter 11 we find Me:xicah and Me:xicah. The usual
> procedure with these gentile names, derived from toponyms ending in the
> locative suffix -co, is to remove the -co and add the gentilic suffix -ca
> plus -tl for singular or -h for the plural. Carochi didn't write the double
> x, but this can be considered normal in colonial period Nahuatl texts.
>
> So there we have a non-Andrews example of Me:xihco. That would tend to
> reinforce Andrews' kk > hk regressive dissimilation, assuming the presence
> of the root xi:c, although additional examples are still needed.


Is it just me? All I see here is more circular reasoning.

>
> Carochi's mentor, the Jesuit priest and native Nahuatl speaker Antonio del
> Rincón, descendant of the royal house of Texcoco and author of a Nahuatl
> grammar (Arte Mexicana) published in 1595, has something to say on this
> matter, as I mentioned briefly in a recent post, providing the citation.
> (Unfortunately, although he explains how he used diacritics to mark glottal
> stops in his text, the printer was unable to reproduce them and they were
> omitted from the published version; as far as I know the original manuscript
> has not surfaced.) Here is what Rincón says, in the first chapter of book 4
> (folio 50 recto and verso of the 1595 edition):
>
> "Nota lo primero que en qualquier composicion el nombre que pierde algo con
> la composicion es el que tiene la significacion en oblico, o como adjetivo
> v.g. [...] Mexico. en medio de la luna, porque perdio el tli, el nombre,
> metztli y generalmente pierden los nombres la ultima en composicion, como
> con los genitivos de los pronombres."
>
> In his "Vocabulario breve", at the end of his Arte (without folio numbers),
> we find this gloss:
>
> "Mexicco: ciudad de Mexico, i. en medio de la luna."
>
> It's pretty clear that he's thinking (me:tztli - tli) + (xi:ctli - tli) (tzx
>> xx > x) + co, with xi:ctli, "navel", meaning "middle" in this context. At
> least I don't see any viable alternatives.


Well...sorry. I see "Moon" but I don't see "navel". All I smell is 
folk-etymology, and native speakers are abundantly capable of 
folk-etymologizing.


I don't have internet at home these days, so I'll have to print this up 
and take it home. I'll study it and see if I can come to the same 
conclusions that you have. But so far, no good. But thanks for the 
ideas.

Best,

Michael




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