| Revision as of 16:49, 14 April 2007 editDúnadan (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users6,967 editsm Actually, I was going to rename the article to "Names of Mexico", and expand the "non-etymological" part a little← Previous edit | Revision as of 18:17, 14 April 2007 edit undoCorticopia (talk | contribs)5,613 editsm that may be so (w/o discussion?), but you plainly and merely reverted my other enhancements too: regardless, 'Etymology' covers it allNext edit → | ||
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| ⚫ | The '''etymology of ''Mexico''''' dates back to ] ]. ] was named after its ], whose original name was ], in reference to the name of the ] ] tribe, the ]. The ] word ''Mexiko'' or ''Mexihko'' ({{IPA|}}) is composed of the root ''Mexi'' and the ] ''-co'' that means "place" or "city." The full name of the city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, means "the place of the Mexica in the cactus-stone," in reference to the image of the eagle perched on a cactus that grew from a stone, in the middle of ]. This image is represented in Mexico's ] and ]. | ||
| ⚫ | The official |
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| ⚫ | The etymology of ''Mexico''dates back to ] ]. ] was named after its ], whose original name was ], in reference to the name of the ] ] tribe, the ]. The ] word ''Mexiko'' or ''Mexihko'' ({{IPA|}}) is composed of the root ''Mexi'' and the ] ''-co'' that means "place" or "city." The full name of the city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, means "the place of the Mexica in the cactus-stone," in reference to the image of the eagle perched on a cactus that grew from a stone, in the middle of ]. This image is represented in Mexico's ] and ]. | ||
| ]]] | ]]] | ||
| ⚫ | The official name of the ] of Mexico is the ''United Mexican States'' (]: ''Estados Unidos Mexicanos''), since it is a ]. The official name was first used in the ] of 1824, and was retained in the constitutions of 1857 and 1917. Informally, ''Mexico'' is used along with ''Mexican Republic'' (''República Mexicana''). | ||
| ==Origins of the name== | ==Origins of the name== | ||
Revision as of 18:17, 14 April 2007
The etymology of Mexico dates back to 14th century Mesoamerica. Mexico was named after its capital, Mexico City, whose original name was Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the name of the Nahua Aztec tribe, the Mexica. The Nahuatl word Mexiko or Mexihko () is composed of the root Mexi and the suffix -co that means "place" or "city." The full name of the city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, means "the place of the Mexica in the cactus-stone," in reference to the image of the eagle perched on a cactus that grew from a stone, in the middle of Lake Texcoco. This image is represented in Mexico's coat of arms and flag.
The official name of the state of Mexico is the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos), since it is a federation of thirty-one states. The official name was first used in the Mexican constitution of 1824, and was retained in the constitutions of 1857 and 1917. Informally, Mexico is used along with Mexican Republic (República Mexicana).
Origins of the name
According to one legend, it was Huitzilopochtli, the war deity and patron of the Mexica who gave them their name. The most probable interpretation is that the name comes from Mexitl or Mexi a secret name for the deity , in which case Mexico means "Place where Mexi lives". Another hypothesis suggests that the word Mexiko derives from the metztli ("moon"), xictli ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix -co (place), thus it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon," in reference to Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco was at the center, had the form of a rabbit, the same image that the Aztecs saw in the moon. Tenochtitlan was located at the center (or navel) of the lake (or rabbit/moon). Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mectli, the goddess of maguey.
Nahua toponymy is full of mysticism, as it was pointed out by the Spanish missionary Bernardino de Sahagún. In his mystic interpretation, Mexico could mean "Center of the World," and, in fact, it was represented as such in various codices, as a place where all water currents that cross the Anahuac ("world" or "land surrounded by seas") converge (see image on the Mendoza codex).
History and evolution
When the Spanish conquistadors sieged México-Tenochtitlan, it was almost completely destroyed in 1521. It was rebuilt during the following three years after which it was designated as a municipality and capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenustitlan, and as of 1585 became officially known simply Ciudad de México. Mexico was used only to refer to the city, and later to a province within the New Spain. It wasn't until the independence of the viceroyalty of New Spain that it was decided that "Mexico" should also be the common name of the country, after rejecting the alternatives América Mexicana and Anáhuac. The official name, as of 1824, however, is Estados Unidos Mexicanos ("Mexican United States", or more properly "United Mexican States").
The Nahuatl word Mexiko, pronounced was transliterated as "México" using Medieval Spanish phonetics, in which the x represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative (/ʃ/, the equivalent of the English sh in "shop"). The j represented the voiced postalveolar fricative (/ʒ/, like the English s in "vision"). However, by the end of the fifteenth century the j had evolved into a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant as well, and thus both the x and the j represented the same sound (/ʃ/). During the sixteenth century this sound evolved into a voiceless velar fricative (/x/, like the ch in German "loch"), and México began to be pronounced as .
Given that both x and j represented the same new sound (/x/), and in lack of a spelling convention, many words that originally had the /ʃ/ sound, began to be written with j (e.g. it wasn't uncommon to find both exército and ejército used during the same time period, even though that due to historicity, the correct spelling would have been exército). In the 1700s the Real Academia Española, the institution in charge of regulating the Spanish language was established, and its members agreed to simplify spelling, and set the j to represent /x/ regardless of the original spelling of the word, and the x to represent /ks/. (The ph phoneme suffered a similar fate, in that it was simplified as f in all words, e.g. philophía became filosofía).
Nevertheless, there was ambivalence in the application of this rule in toponyms: México was used alongside Méjico, Texas and Tejas, Oaxaca and Oajaca, Xalixco and Jalisco, etc., as well as in proper and last names: Xavier and Javier, Ximénez and Jiménez are spelling variants still used today.
is is still the pronunciation of the word in modern Spanish, even though in some dialects (mostly in the Caribbean and some places in South America) the /x/ sound is substituted with a voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) and the word is pronounced as . In English, however, the x does not represent neither the original sound /ʃ/ nor the modern sound /x/, but the double consonant /ks/; thus Mexico is pronounced as .
Normative spelling in Spanish
México is the predominant Spanish spelling variant used throughout Latin America, and universally used in Mexican Spanish, whereas Méjico is used infrequently in Spain and Argentina. During the 1990s, the Real Academia Española recommended that México be the normative spelling of the word and all its derivatives, even though this spelling does not match the pronunciation of the word. Since then, the majority of publications adhere to the new normative in all Spanish-speaking countries even though the disused variant can still be found. The same rule applies to all Spanish toponyms in the Americas, and on some occasions in the Iberian Peninsula, even though in most co-official or regional languages of Spain (Asturian and Catalan), the x is still pronounced as /ʃ/.
References
- AGUILAR-MORENO M (2006) Handbook to Life in the Aztec World Facts of Life, Inc: New York, USA, p. 19
- Nombre del Estado de México Gobierno del Estado de México
- idem
- Historia de la Ciudad de México Gobierno del Distrito Federal
- Evolution of the pronunciation of x Real Academia Española
- Real Academia Española Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas
- "Mexico" Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary