[Aztlan] Water over the world

[Paul Sullivan]

Dave Hixson raises an important question about the meaning of the 
/il/ infix in the expression, /ha-il-yokol-cab/ or /hay-il-yokol-cab/.
It's a relational term.  If in this expression "ha" means water, then 
the expression would be "the water of the world," even as in modern 
Yucatec, /ha-il-a-w-ich/ means "the water of your eye," or 
"tears."  The presence of the relational infix inclines me against 
reading this a pertaining to water ("the water of the world"?), but, 
rather, /hay/ or destruction -- i.e. "the destruction of the 
world."  That reading is reinforced by the appearance of a related 
expression, /noh hail cabil/, "great destruction of the world" (not 
"great water of the world") in the books of Chilam Balam in 
conjunction with the slaying of Itzam Cab Ain.

Some of the issues raised in the discussion of this matter are 
explored in Timothy Knowlton's 2004 dissertation (Tulane Univ.), 
"Diaologism in the Languages of Colonial Maya Creation Myths."