Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:56:52.583Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Water” in Mexican Place Names

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Joseph Raymond
Joseph Raymond*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Water is a Prominent Theme in Mexican place names. Of at least 50,000 Indian toponyms, an untold number of references are made to water: its abundance, scarcity, shape, size and quality (i.e., color, taste and purity for drinking).

A study of Mexican place names makes it apparent that the proper distribution of water is historically one of the basic problems confronting the country; this is indirectly substantiated by many allusions to aqueducts and to the question of water ownerships in a given place. Rivers, too, play an important part in Mexican toponyms; the same applies perhaps more so to springs. Vegetation and fauna frequently are identified with hydronyms in Mexican place names. Diverse actions are associated with another group, while stones and soil figure in still another class. Canoes appear in another cluster of place names.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , October 1952 , pp. 201 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1952

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Areola, José María, Nombres indígenas de lugares del Estado de Jalisco. Guadalajara: Junta Auxiliar Jalisciense de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, 1935.Google Scholar
Becerra, Marcos E., Nombres geográficos indígenas del Estado de Chiapas. Tuxtla Gutiérrez: Gobierno, 1930.Google Scholar
Castillo, Ignacio Manuel del, Toponímicos nahuatl del Estado de Michoacán. Morelia, Mich.: Universidad Michoacana, 1940.Google Scholar
Cejador y Frauca, Julio, Toponimia hispánica…. Madrid: Hernando, 1928.Google Scholar
Dávila Garibi, José I., Toponimias Nahuas…. México: Stylo, 1942.Google Scholar
Ibarra de Anda, F., Geonimia indígena Mexicana. México: n. p., 1932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olaguibel, Manuel de., Onomatología del Estado de México …., Toluca. México: Gobierno, Escuela de Artes y Oficios, 1894.Google Scholar
Peñafiel, Antonio, Nombres geográficos de México…. México: Secretaría de Fomento, 1885.Google Scholar
Robelo, Cecilio, Nombres geográficos indígenas del Estado de México…. Cuernavaca: Miranda, 1900.Google Scholar
Robelo, Cecilio, Nombres geográficos indígenas del Estado de Morelos…. Cuernavaca: Rojas, 1901.Google Scholar
Robelo, Cecilio, Toponimía Tarasco-Hispano-Nahoa. México, Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnología, 1913.Google Scholar
Rosa, Agustín de la, Explicación de algunos de los nombres de la lengua mexicana…. Guadalajara, Jalisco: Zavala, 1901.Google Scholar
Rovirosa, José N., Nombres geográficos del Estado de Tabasco. México: Sec. de Fomento, 1888.Google Scholar
Tannenbaum, Frank, Mexico: The Struggle for Peace and Bread. New York: Knopf, 1950.Google Scholar