Tegucigalpa

[Gordon Whittaker]

Dear Rafael,

I have no idea what my source was, but I do recall reading a long time ago
that Tegucigalpa is a corruption of Tlacochcalpan, 'in the house of
javelins = arsenal', or, I presume, a Pipil equivalent (Tacuchcalpan).
'Silver hills' can't involve Nahuatl, and the name is certainly Nahuat(l)
in origin.

Another interesting name is that of the thoroughly infamous U.S.-supported
Atlacatl Brigade of neighbouring El Salvador (active also in Honduras),
responsible among other things for massacring an entire village and
several Jesuits in the 1980s. The name Atlacatl presumably comes from the
legendary figure of that name in Honduras' past, but I think the following
analysis would be more apt (but technically incorrect):
a'-tlacatl 'non-human, inhumane'

Best wishes,
Gordon


> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm a Nahuatl student and I am looking for help with breaking down
> "Tegucigalpa." There is a popular translation that says it means "place of
> silver hills." I'm not sure how they have come up with that definition.
>
> Here's what I've been looking at:
>
> Tegucigalpa> Te. coz-qui. cal-li. Pan. Pipil-Nawat has a 'u' variant,
> turning "cozqui" to "cuzqui."
>
>>>From that we can now get Tecuzquicalpan. 'S/C' sounds give way to 'g' and
>> the final 'n' becomes completely silent, leading to the hispanicized
>> name, "Teguz'igalpa'" -- place of (someone's) jewel-houses?
>
> I'd appreciate the help. Tlazocamati.
>
> Rafael Benavides

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gordon Whittaker
Professor
Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl