[Aztlan] Taking Liberties with Mexican Spellings??

[kim Goldsmith]

O.K., what's the deal?  First last week I see
"Uaxactun" spelled "Waxactun", now today I see
"Yucatan" spelled "Yukatan".  I realize that for those
of us who are the "learned and the linguists", these
spellings might be more proper when covering
linguistic topics.  But when we are just plain talking
about the sites, what gives??

These two areas are places on the map that the Meso.
Governments choose to spell the way they see fit, i.e.
the "traditional" spellings of the Mesoamerican
pronunciations.  Do I need to remind bilingual
speakers on here that at least in Mexico, the "W" is
used almost exclusively in the name "Wenseslau", and
the "K" is used almost exclusively in the word "kilo"
(and of course, KIM - hahahaha).

Seriously, I don't know if, after having spent the
last 26 years down here in the relatively sleepy
little village of San Juan Teotihuacan, I am just out
of the loop or what......but I find it highly
ethnocentric on the part of foriegn researchers to go
with these name changes - - seems like a slap in the
face to an area with which foriengers have already had
to try VERY hard for at least the last 100 years to
have good professional relationships with.

Hope everybody is well.  Please don't send your hate
mail to me on my observations on this topic directly
to my e-mail ;)

P.S.  A little story.  When I worked in Naranjal,
Q.R.,  the little Maya kids could not pronounce "Kim".
 The closest thing they could come up with was K'mi
(or however you're spelling it now).  Everytime they
would see me, they would point and squeal with delight
in Yucatecan, "HERE COMES DEATH, HERE COMES DEATH!!!".
 The kids loved me, and I just went with it.  Hey,
when in Rome............right?


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