Toponymy of Mexico

The toponymy of Mexico date of the Mésoamérique of the 14th century. The Mexico was named according to the name of its capital, Mexico City, whose original name was Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, in reference in the name of the tribe Aztèque Nahua, the Mexica S. the word Nahuatl Mexiko or Mexihko ( ) is composed of the root Mexi and the Suffixe - Co which means " lieu" or " cité." The complete name of the city, Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, means " the place of Mexica on the cactus" in reference to the image the eagle perched on the cactus pushing on a rock, in the middle of the Lake Texcoco. This image is represented on the armorial bearings and the flag.

Origin of the name

There exist various assumptions on the significance of the word Mexico City . What is certain they is that it is about a term of origin Nahuatl, with which the Mexicas indicated the capital of their State. The assumption most commonly allowed is that which indicates that the name of the country originates in the terms metztli = the moon, xictli = navel or center, and - Co = suffix of place. According to this form, the word Mexico City means place of the center of the moon , or more precisely, the lake of the moon, which was one of the names that the mexicas used to indicate the Lac Texcoco. The Toponymy nahuatl, in addition to being descriptive, was in charge of certain mystical, known directions only by certain initiates, as announces it Sahagún in its Historia of mow cosas of Nueva España . In this esoteric interpretation , the name granted to Mexico means Center of the World , and thus the town of Mexico City is represented in several Codex, as the place where confluent all rivers which cross the Anáhuac (the world, ground surrounded by water).

Another assumption is that which connects the name of the country with that of the god Mexi (delivery in nahuatl), given to their guardian god Huitzilopochtli, the hummingbird of left. Of this form, Mexico City is the place where Huitzilopochtli lives. According to the chronicles mexicas, Huitzilopochtli left this tribe Aztlán (a mythical place, some think that it is located at Nayarit or in the New Mexico) to take them along towards a promised land. To go in this place, the tribe had to travel during two hundred years. Arrived on the small island of Mexihco on the Lake Texcoco, the sign given by their god and their principal priest, called Ténoch.

When the Spaniards made the meeting of these people and that they transcribed their language, naturally they did it while following the rules of the Spanish language of the time. The language nahuatl has a sound/∫/(like chien ) and this sound was represented by the letter X in Spanish, and although the pronunciation changed, the C-W communication of Mexico City preserved X for etymological reasons and histories, like as many other names of sites and objects whose names have an origin mésoaméricaine.

Certain authors (particularly in Spain) write the name of the country or the capital like this: Méjico . Even if the two forms are considered correct by the royal Académie of the Spanish language, it is the same institution which suggests the form Mexico City and the use of the X in all its derivatives. Historically, the majority of Spanish-speaking used the C-W communication with a X .

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