[Aztlan] Cancun...more

[Barb MacLeod]

I still find the 'golden serpent' interpretation questionable. An adjective like 'dorado' (given in the Cordemex as naban ti k'an tak'in--literally 'daubed with golden/precious money' and even more literally 'golden/precious excrement of the sun') would either be represented as a root like k'an 'golden, precious' or k'ank'an 'yellow, golden' and positioned before the noun or, if a complex idea like 'daubed with gold' it would be given as it is in the Cordemex. I don't know what to make of k'uun, since its appearance in Bastarrachea's list is unique, but I would still expect it to be the first word in the compound if the second is 'snake' and the whole means 'golden snake'. And, concurring with Dave, I feel that the form <cancun> is unlikely to include a glottalized consonant, given what we know of the history of the name.

My reasons for favoring 'sky' (ka'an) are (1) it is nearly homophonous with 'snake' (kaan), differing from 'snake' only in the form of the vowel, which, as Dave indicated, is often ambiguously transcribed, and (2) taking the hieroglyphic toponyms 'sky-cave', 'earth-cave' as a model, a 'sky' component could be expected to precede a noun in a toponym.

In Ch'olan languages, 'snake', 'sky', and 'four' are all chan, although in archaic Ch'olan, 'four' had a short vowel and the other two had long vowels.

As for double entendre, yes, in the case of sky and snake it is iconically possible, as the Precolumbian Maya sky is depicted as a double-headed serpent bedecked with sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies, and may represent the Milky Way--or the ecliptic. The script does sometimes interchange the logograms for 'sky' and 'snake' --and sometimes 'four' in contexts where 'sky' or 'four' are intended, but I have not seen this rebus-play in, for example, the Calakmul Emblem Glyph. It seems that where they really meant 'snake' they explicitly said 'snake'.

Barb

***

Jules Siegel said:

It may just be an updating error. The citations are from two versions of
the dictionary. The later one is Lugar de la serpiente de oro. I believe 
that serpiente dorado would sound better in colloquial Spanish.

Olla may have something to do with the configuration of the land. Cancun
is an island surrounding a lagoon. The exact analogy escapes me, but
think about "neck of the woods" for starters. As I mentioned previously,
a Mayan man here told me that Cancun means beautiful lake. Doesn't k'an
have the sense of precious among its meanings? Preciosa in Spanish is 
beautiful or lovely.

I like foundation -- or seat, site, place of origin -- a lot. I'm not
sure about sky and am inclined to favor snake, but they are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. Has anyone ever seen any correspondences
between Kukulkan and the Milky Way? How about this:

"CHAN/KAN (chan/kan) (T764) 1> n. "snake," "serpent" 2> n. "captor" <> 
(JM) Homophonous or semi-homophonous with chaan/kaan "sky" and chan/kan 
"four." Main sign of the Calakmul Emblem Glyph. Depicts the head of a 
snake." 
<http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/montgomery/ch/t764_chan_kan_b.htm>


--
JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764, 77501-Cancun, Q. Roo, Mexico
http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts

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