[Aztlan] Southeastern US/Mesoamerican language contacts

[Gerardo Aldana]

Hi All,
I appreciate Nick's caveats concerning language borrowings, but it seems at least provocative that the warrior figure on page 48 of the Dresden Codex (in the Venus Table) is named hieroglyphically as ta-wi-si-ka-la--read by Harvey and Victoria Bricker (and others) as tawis(i)kal(a) or Tawiskal.  I wonder what else there is on Tawiskala in Cherokee in favor of or against some connection?

Saludos,
Gerardo Aldana


--- On Tue, 8/25/09, Robert Hall <robertleonardhall at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: Robert Hall <robertleonardhall at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Aztlan] Southeastern US/Mesoamerican language contacts
To: "Aztlan" <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 7:05 PM





Listeros,
     At the 1982 Conference on Iroquoian Research in Rensselaerville, New York, Floyd Lounsbury presented a paper entitled "Tawiskala" that dealt with the near homophony of the name of the god Tawiskala in Cherokee (a southern language of the Iroquoian family) and the first part of the name of the god known in Nahuatl as Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. Tawiskala translates as "flint, ice" and Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli was Lord of the Dawn, God of Frost, and a manifestation of Venus as Morning Star.
     Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli wore a hat with the name Itzlacoliuhqui that translates literally as "Everything-has-become-curved-because-of-obsidian" and figuratively as "Everything-has-become-wilted-because-of-coldness" (Andrews and Hassig 1984:229). Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli's (Morning Star's) arrows fell as frost. This makes relevant the fact that in the myth associated with the Skiri Pawnee Captive Maiden or Morning Star sacrifice --- a scaffold sacrifice by arrows --- Morning Star's arrows were used to kill certain corn plants that protected the victim's vulva. Frost would do that. Note that the name, Xilonen, of the Aztec Green Corn Maiden derives from the Nahuatl words xilotl 'ear of green corn' and nenetl 'female genital, doll' (Grigsby and Cook de Leonard 1992:139n7).
     Returning to Cherokee, I find it more than coincidence that the name for corn (selu) and that for the Cherokee Corn Mother (Selu) are nearly homophonic with the Nahuatl root xilo- for tender ear of green maize. To my knowledge there is no cognate word for corn in any other language of the Iroquoian family, suggesting selu was an introduction into Cherokee. If there is evidence for such a cognate in Iroquoian outside of Cherokee, I would most earnestly like to hear about it.
     Bob Hall
    
_______________________________________________
Aztlan mailing list
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/aztlan
Click here to post a message Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Click to view Calendar of Events http://research.famsi.org/events/events.php