tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38274157362580103392024-03-13T09:46:20.840-07:00Etymology of MexicoTodd Bates - Broker/Owner Re/Max Puerto Vallartahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07175207921454710494noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827415736258010339.post-31880935169609298272010-10-22T14:32:00.003-07:002010-10-22T14:32:48.422-07:00<h2><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="font-weight: normal;">Courtesy: Wikipedia </i></span></h2><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle"><br />
</div><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main article: <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toponymy_of_Mexico" title="Toponymy of Mexico">Toponymy of Mexico</a></div><div class="thumb tleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CodexMendoza01.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="260" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/CodexMendoza01.jpg/220px-CodexMendoza01.jpg" width="220" /></a> <br />
<div class="thumbcaption">Image of Mexico-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan" title="Tenochtitlan">Tenochtitlan</a> from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Mendoza" title="Codex Mendoza">Codex Mendoza</a>.</div></div></div>After New Spain won independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City" title="Mexico City">Mexico City</a>, which was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Aztec capital of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan" title="Tenochtitlan">México-Tenochtitlan</a>. The name comes from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl" title="Nahuatl">Nahuatl</a> language, but its meaning is not known. It has been suggested that it is derived from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mextli" title="Mextli">Mextli</a></i> or <i>Mēxihtli</i>, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huitzilopochtli" title="Huitzilopochtli">Huitzilopochtli</a>, in which case <i>Mēxihco</i> means "Place where <i>Mēxihtli</i> lives".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-27">[28]</a></sup><br />
Another hypothesis suggests that the word <i>Mēxihco</i> derives from the <i>mētztli</i> ("moon"), <i>xictli</i> ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix <i>-co</i> (place), in which case it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon", in reference to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Texcoco" title="Lake Texcoco">Lake Texcoco</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-edomex_28-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-edomex-28">[29]</a></sup> 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).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-edomex_28-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-edomex-28">[29]</a></sup> Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from <i>Mēctli,</i> the goddess of maguey.<br />
The name of the city was transliterated to Spanish as <i>México</i> with the phonetic value of the <i>x</i> in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative <span class="IPA" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʃ/</span>. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative <span class="IPA" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʒ/</span>, represented by a <i>j</i>, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative <span class="IPA" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/x/</span> during the sixteenth century.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-29">[30]</a></sup> This led to the use of the variant <i>Méjico</i> in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries <i>México</i> was the preferred spelling. In recent years the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Academia_Espa%C3%B1ola" title="Real Academia Española">Real Academia Española</a></i>, which regulates the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language" title="Spanish language">Spanish language</a>, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is <i>México</i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-30">[31]</a></sup> The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-31">[32]</a></sup> In English, the <i>x</i> in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster <span class="IPA" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ks/</span>.<br />
The official name of the country has changed as the form of government has changed. On two occasions (1821–1823 and 1863–1867), the country was known as <i>Imperio Mexicano</i> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Empire" title="Mexican Empire">Mexican Empire</a>). All three federal constitutions (1824, 1857 and 1917, the current constitution) used the name <i>Estados Unidos Mexicanos</i><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-32">[33]</a></sup>—or the variants <i>Estados Unidos mexicanos</i><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-33">[34]</a></sup> and <i>Estados-Unidos Mexicanos</i>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-34"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-34">[35]</a></sup> all of which have been translated as "United Mexican States". The term <i>República Mexicana</i>, "Mexican Republic" was used in the 1836 Constitutional Laws.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico#cite_note-35">[36]</a></sup>Todd Bates - Broker/Owner Re/Max Puerto Vallartahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07175207921454710494noreply@blogger.com0