[Aztlan] Another Hitchiti/Itza Maya language connection

[Nick Hopkins]

Listeros--
Just a couple of quick comments on the putative Itzá/Nahuatl/Hitchiti/etc. issue.  The bottom line is that if these similarities are the result of language contact and lexical borrowing, they would have to be rather recent.  Otherwise the words would have suffered the natural processes of language change and no longer resemble each other as closely as the terms cited do.  If they were truly ancient they would be as distinct as native vocabulary within the different languages that make up Muskogean or Mayan (or Uto-Aztecan, etc.).  That would hold true whether they were borrowings or mutually inherited terms from some common ancestor.    

The close resemblance of the words puts the time-frame somewhere near historical times, and if there had been intimate contact between North American and Mesoamerican groups in recent times you would think there would be some traditional knowledge or physical evidence of it.  (I know, some people might argue that there is.)  
I know that there is evidence of prehistoric contact between peoples of the Caribbean and Southeastern peoples.  For instance, Timucua (Central and North Florida) borrowed two words for ritually important items from Taino (Cuba and Hispaniola): tobacco and yaupon (Ilex).  But I don't think there is any way, given current knowledge, that we can factor in Itzá or Nahuatl or Totonac.
There are always "chance resemblances" between languages, so isolated similarities are not sufficient evidence to make a strong case for contact or genealogical relationship, especially in the absence of physical evidence.
Nick Hopkins 
> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:07:00 -0400
> From: gdaniels99 at tds.net
> To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> Subject: [Aztlan]   Another Hitchiti/Itza Maya language connection
> 
> It's strange enough that the word "chiki" is used in similar ways by the
> Totonac & Itza Maya of Gulf Coast Mexico and Hitchiti of Southeastern U.S.
> 
> But I've also stumbled upon another connection:
> 
> Chichen Itza means "mouth of the well of the Itza" in Itza Maya language.
> Chi = mouth
> Chen = well
> 
> Something similar occurs in Hitchiti:
> 
> Chi = mouth
> Chahni = well
> 
> Thus in Hitchiti "chichahni" means mouth of the well.
> 
> Also, in Itza Maya adding "-ha" to the end of a word denotes "water."
> Interestingly, there are quite a few rivers in Georgia with Hitchiti names
> that end with "-ha" (for instance, altamaha.) I haven't been able to find
> any information regarding what the "ha" suffix in Hitchiti means. Does it
> also denote water?
> 
> Has there ever been a study comparing Hitchiti to languages on the gulf
> coast of Mexico?
> 
> -Gary C. Daniels
> Publisher, LostWorlds.org
> http://www.LostWorlds.org
> 
> 
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