[Aztlan] Chilam etymology

[Gary Daniels]

Well, I found a verb in another language (Hitchiti) which is "chaolom" and
it means "to write." I've found what seem to be other Mayan loan words in
this language as well. For instance, in Itza Maya "chi" is "mouth" and
"chen" is "well." In Hitchiti, "chi" is "mouth" and "chahni" is "well." Also
in Hitchiti, "chikee" means "house." "Chikee" also means "house" in Totonac
and it appears they borrowed the word from Mayan because "chikee" means
"woven basket" in Mayan. (Wattle-and-daub houses are, in fact, "woven
containers" for people to live in.) In Mayan the "-ha" suffix is used to
denote water. In Hitchiti areas there are numerous rivers and lakes that end
with "-ha" such as Altamaha River and Lake Hatchineha suggesting that they
also used the suffix "-ha" to denote water although I've been unable to
confirm this in any Hitchiti dictionary. There is a Hitchiti town named
Chiaha located on an island. In Itza Maya "chiaha" means "water's mouth or
water's edge." It appears to mean the same thing in Hitchiti which just
happens to be a perfect description of the town.

Thus, when I found the verb "chaolom" in Hitchiti it immediately made me
think of "chilam" in Mayan. I know that the Chilam Balam wasn't only a
prophet but was also a scribe who wrote the books known as Chilam Balam.
Thus I can see how the word "chilam" could have evolved into an informal or
slang way of meaning "to write" just as Xerox has turned from a proper noun
into a verb meaning "to photocopy." So I was just looking for any evidence
of this.

So far, it doesn't look like there's a connection. But as we can see from
previous comments the interpretation of Chilam has grown from "mouth piece"
to "interpreter" to "lying down." Thus who knows what other usages the word
may have had?

But it should be remembered that whatever the words "Chilam Balam" can be
broken down to mean, they were actually used as a proper name or title by
the average person. For instance, the English word "Prophet" can be broken
down to its Greek form "prophatas" which means "an interpreter, spokesman"
(especially of the gods). This can be broken down to its Latin form "pro-"
meaning "before" and "phanai" meaning "to speak" which means something like
"to speak before it happens." But how many average people actually think
this way? To the average person "Prophet" is just the title of someone who
can see the future and if you ask them what it means they might say
"clairvoyant" or "fortune-teller" but I doubt they'd say "an interpreter of
the gods who speaks before things happen."  Likewise, if you went back in
time and asked the average Mayan what was a "Chilam Balam" I suspect they
would say "priest" or "prophet" or "scribe" as opposed to "lying down
grandfather guardian" or "interpreter of the gods."

Furthermore, the average person usually doesn't think about the process one
uses to achieve the end result, they usually only think of the end result.
Thus if you ask someone what is an "Author" they'll say "book writer." It's
doubtful they'll say "sitting in chair typing man." Thus it's doubtful that
the average Mayan would conceptualize the Chilam Balam by their process,
"lying down grandfather guardian," and more likely thought of them by their
end result "book writer."

Thus I would not be surprised if "chilam" was associated with "writing" as
opposed to "lying down" or "interpreting" regardless of the literal meaning
of the word. (By the way, the literal Latin meaning of "author" is "one who
causes to grow." Future anthropologists might think authors were farmers if
they simply went by the literal meaning. And worse still, the fruit of their
labor, "books," is literally translated as "beechwood" thus future
anthropologists might think authors were farmers who grew trees!)

-Gary C. Daniels
http://www.LostWorlds.org



 


On 11/11/09 2:51 PM, "Jorge Pérez de Lara" <jorgepl at estudioelias.com> wrote:

> Excuse me, Gary. I may have missed part of your argument here, but how
> exactly did you come to the idea that chilam (even if not verbalized
> the way nouns are in English) is associated with writing/the written
> word?
> 
> Jorge
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