[Aztlan] Water Over the Earth

[Michael Grofe]

Hi John,

Thanks for your posting.
To answer the first part of your question, the etymology of /haiyokocab/ in
Yucatec is fairly straightforward, and precisely what Tozzer gives as "water
over the earth", though /yokol cab/ also refers to 'the world':

/ha/ = 'water'
/yook'ol/ = 'over/on top of' from the adverbial root /ok'/, meaning 'above,
over, on top of'
/kab'/ = 'earth'

For reference, David Bolles has an excellent online source for Yucatec on
FAMSI:

/ha/:
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/h/h_haadzal.htm
/ok'/ here as /ok/
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/o/odz_okolnil.htm
/yok'ol/ here as /yokol/
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/ydic3a.htm
/kab'/ here as /cab/:
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/c/cab.htm


As for your other questions, under the /yokol/ entries, you can also see
that /yokol cab/ refers to 'the world', so a flood over the whole world
would indeed seem to refer to these mythological events, rather than to
ordinary flooding, which would be /chup cabil/ or /bul cabil/:
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/ch/chunb_chuy.htm

Regarding Thompson's association between /haiyokocab/ and /haycabil/, they
may be related in terms of their reference to mythological world
destruction, but not necessarily by flood. Bolles gives a definition of
/haycabil/ as "destruction of the world, mostly through hurricane. From hay
= flatten and cab = world.":
http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/h/hay_heancil.htm

I'm not aware of any mentioning of either of these exact words in the
inscriptions, though the flood narrative from the Palenque Temple XIX
platform, south side, is most likely related. There is a repeated,
undeciphered glyph in this text (F4 and F5) that refers to a deluge of blood
following the decapitation of the Celestial Caiman. See Erik Velásquez
García's article about this and other flood narratives, including the scene
on Dreden pg. 74 and the Chilam Balam texts:
www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/701/flood_e.pdf

Cheers,
Michael Grofe


>   1. Water Over the Earth (Hoopes, John W)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Hoopes, John W" <hoopes at ku.edu>
> To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
> Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:59:34 -0500
> Subject: [Aztlan] Water Over the Earth
> 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
>
>
>