Etymology of "Mexico"

[Michael McCafferty]

David, Gordon, John, Magnus, and anyone else still aboard this bronco.

Here's how i see the problem, at least with four minutes to get to class:

1) Andrews' linguistic analysis, of an earlier idea, is simply circular 
and lacks any evidence.

2) John has given us an example of /kk/ going to /?k/. That's *one* 
little piece of evidence from Huastecan.

3) But John's shift doesn't give us a short vowel. And that's an 
important linguistic observation. Perhaps I'm inside Central Algonquian 
too much, but my sense of Nahuatl, as in C.A., is that vowel length is 
to be revered. :-)

4) Folk-etymologizing of another term beginning with */m:ex-/ is quite 
possible in giving us the "In the navel of the Moon" toponym.

5) I don't see any bedrock support in anything else that's been 
offered, the historical stuff, although I've enjoyed looking at it. 
Maybe #5's just my problem.

Best,

Michael







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

> 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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