[Aztlan] Water Over the Earth

[Barb MacLeod]

Here's a bit of information about the root /hay/ in Yukatek Maya:

It is historically /h/-initial rather than /j/-initial, according to the Motul Dictionary, and thus it is not cognate with /jay/ meaning 'thin', 'stretched out'. The Motul entry is <haycabal, haycabil>: 'destruicion o asolamiento y diluvio general con que fue destruido y asolado el mundo'.

Other Motul entries such as <haay cimi u alakob> 'todo mi ganado y mis aves se murieron' suggest that it does not refer specifically to flooding but rather to general destruction and widespread mortality ('gran mortandad'). However, there seems to be a persistent association with destructive floods. In the Cordemex (p. 190) under <hayah> one finds multiple examples suggesting that /hay/ is an intransitive root (<hayi winik>) and is transitivized with causative /-(e)s/; it also forms compounds with verbs and nouns (<hay kimil>, <hay kab>, also on p.190) suggesting an attributive function, and at times it behaves as a noun, as in Tozzer's form <haiyokocab>, analyzable as /ha(a)y yok'ol kab/ 'destruction over the earth'.

Thompson is correct in his understanding of the simpler terms <haycabal> and <haycabil>, which can be analyzed as ha(ay)-kab-il/-al  'earth-destruction' plus an abstractive suffix producing '(the general concept of) earth destruction'.

As for any epigraphic references to floods, we have of course the scene on p. 74 of the Dresden Codex depicting what has been thought to be a great end-of-world flood. The terms 'black sky' and 'black earth' appear in the text above, which opens with an unknown verb that may be "watery". Perhaps someone has deciphered it? 

And on pages 68-77 of David Stuart's (2005) The Inscriptions from Temple XIX at Palenque there is discussion of a primordial crocodile sacrifice featuring another undeciphered "watery" verb, referring in this case to the flowing blood of the beast. Perhaps this may be a flood reference, but the verb in question is followed by 'u-CH'ICH'/K'IK' -le: /'u-ch'ich'el/k'ik'-el/ 'his blood'.

Barb MacLeod

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Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:59:34 -0500
From: "Hoopes, John W" <hoopes at ku.edu>
Subject: [Aztlan] Water Over the Earth
To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
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In 1907, Tozzer recorded a story near Valladolid, Yucatan in which there
is a narrative of four successive creations and their destructions by
floods.  In writing of the intial creation, he notes, "This first epoch
was separated from the second by a flood called _haiyokocab_ (water over
the earth)."

Tozzer, Alfred (1907) A comparative study of the Mayas and the
Lacandones. Arch. Inst. Am. Rep. of Fellow in Am. Arch., 1902-05, N.Y.
(The quote is cited in Tozzer 1941, ff. 633, as from pp. 153-4).

In "Maya History and Religion," Thompson speculated that "haiyokocab"
was "comparable to the terms _haycabal_ and _haycabil_ used in the Books
of Chilam Balam" (1970: 341).

1) What is the specific etymology and meaning of "haiyokocab"?
2) Is it a typical name for a flood or a name for a special kind of
flood?
3) Was Thompson correct about comparable terms in the Books of Chilam
Balam?
2) Is there any epigraphic evidence for related terms in pre-Contact
literature?

Thanks!

John Hoopes