[Aztlan] Mayan words in English

[Barb MacLeod]

This sounds good to me, Dave. Terry Kaufman can be cited as a source person on the origin of pM *kakaw as pMS *kakawa.

The common spelling for 'chocolate' in the dedicatory formula on ancient Maya vases is ka-ka-wa, with the last vowel dropped per the standard rule. There are many modifiers to *kakaw, however, specifying labels and recipes, and these are found in the glyph block before the ka-ka-wa spelling.

Since I have not tracked the transmission of the word to languages in Central Mexico, I don't know who might have passed it to Nahuatl speakers at what temporal horizon. I'd be very interested to know more.

I am supposing that the Bristish turned 'cacao' into 'cocoa'.

Barb

Message: 11
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 08:13:57 -0800 (PST)
From: David Hixson <aztlandave at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Mayan words in English
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Message-ID: <306380.64174.qm at web37008.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear Fritz, Barb, Bryan, and others,

Since so many etymologies have been asserted by so
many folks I respect, could someone clarify...  Am I
correct to summarize:

Cacao (now the English nickname "Coco" for Chocolate),
is documented first as a Mixe-Zoque term - the
language that most postulate was in use by middle or
late preclassic Olmec cultures (could anyone provide a
citation for this?).

Slightly later, it is clearly found as a classic Maya
term, spelled phonetically on certain vessels - for
instance on the so-called "cholate pots" such as the
famous "hershey pot" from Rio Azul.

Then, later (but before the spanish arrived) it is
found in the terminology of the Nahuatl (Aztec)
speakers.

The term was then adopted by the Spaniards through
their contact with the Aztecs, and eventually migrated
into English.

Is this a correct summary, based upon the knowledge of
our list members?

-Dave