[Aztlan] Mayan words in English

[Lawrence Lo]

Dakin and Wichmann have an article arguing that kakaw was originally a
Nahuatl word and transmitted to Mixe-Zoquean and Mayan later on.  It can
be found at Wichmann's web site:

http://email.eva.mpg.de/%7Ewichmann/CacaoChocolate.pdf

Enjoy,

LarrY


> 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
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------------------------------
Lawrence Lo

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Ancient Scripts of the World