I unironically support this
while I like this, I don’t think I would be able to pronounce it, lol
Somebody teach me the basic pronounciation, so I can make a slightly less fool of myself when trying to say it, and I’m on board with that.
I’ll do this starting NOW, if someone will just post a pronunciation guide! Please?
Chalchiuhtlicue [t͡ʃaːɬt͡ʃiwˈt͡ɬikʷeː]
Best I can do is this: chal-chew-KLEE-kway
With some help from Forvo. The [t͡ɬ] sounds like KL to my Canadian ears and not TL (which doesn’t happen at the start of syllable in English anyway).
Edit: apparently that’s just rhe the deity… Not sure what to do with the last few letters. “eh-kattle”?
Yep, that’s just the deity.
There’s also pronunciation videos, FYI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pklyVXkYgk&t=35s
Thanks: that’s gonna take some practise!
If we want to rename things (Mexico was a LOT larger in the olden times) why don’t we call it “Gulf of the Americas?”
Oh because it doesn’t support imperial single minded nationalism and isn’t USA centered
America is a continent, not a country. “Americas” is as correct as “Europes”. But certainly those who decided to call it gulf of america are not aware of that.
If human bodies are mostly water, does that mean Chalchiuhtlicue has dominion over us, too? 🤔
@Sal@mander.xyz - Do you know? I couldn’t find many sources but I only speak English.
EDIT: As indepndnt mentioned in a comment below, the OP was posted on February 14, which pre-dates the wikipedia edits. So, my conclusions below about the timeline are not valid.
Hah, sure, let’s investigate 🕵️♂️
The term ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’ was added as a potential Aztec name to the English wikipedia page on February 15, 2025, by user ‘Mxn’.
The description of the edit is the following:
Frum says the Aztecs had no specific name for the gulf, which is plausible in a practical sense, but Fernández gives a specific religious name and is more of a reliable source on this topic
If we investigate a bit further, we can see that the term Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl is described to be a name for the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ in the spanish Wikipedia: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl
This page was updated to include the description of Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl as the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ in September 16, 2018. I don’t have access to the citation so I don’t know if the citation specifies if this term is still known/used.
If you check the history you will find that the same ‘Mxn’ fixed a typo in this page on February 15, 2025.
So, from this sequence of events it is highly likely that the term ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’ was included into the Gulf of Mexico wiki page as a result of the user Mxn performing an active search for Aztec names for the Gulf of Mexico, and finding this connection between the term an the gulf by searching on Wikipedia. This information did not come from recent news about the term being used by natives.
I can find no evidence of native people referring to the gulf of Mexico as ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’ more frequently or at all. I can find no mention of this becoming viral in Mexico.
I find it highly unlikely that:
- User Mxn added an obscure Aztec term to the Wiki page two weeks ago
AND
- This same obscure Aztec term coincidentally began being used by Mexican natives, and this trend became popular enough to be noticed by foreign media but not by Mexican media
More likely…
- Mxn actively looked for a term and updated the English wiki
- Someone read the English wiki, thought this would be a nice story, made the meme
And this concludes my little investigation 🧐
Haha, fantastic. Thank you for your work. ALAS! We have uncovered a deeper mystery! 🔍🔎🔎🔍🔎 🤔
Is this the book? https://annas-archive.org/md5/fb8569c405991107b987fda775f49ba2
Yes, but that version is in German. That website also has one in English: https://annas-archive.org/slow_download/24154814bfe1e676d79509c3db1f74a4/0/0
Let’s see…
Woah, interesting. The author is José López Portillo. I thought he shared the name with a former Mexican president, but, nope, the author is a former Mexican president.
The title of the English version is a bit different, but the text appears to be the same. It is a novel, and I can find no mention of the gulf of Mexico or of Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl in this book. To me it looks like a mistake in the citation.
The claim appears to come from this text (citation 1): https://www.scribd.com/document/703207646/Dioses-prehispanicos-de-Mexico-mitos-y-deidades-del-panteon-Fernandez-Adela-1992-Mexico-D-F-Panorama-Editorial-9789683803061-cbee5
Unfortunately, that book does not contain references nor is it stated where this claim comes from.
Neat!!! Thank you.
Cuando quieras! 😁
Agree, at least it’s the original name
Where and when was this decided by the Indigenous people of North America?
I’m interested to learn more about this. I’ve never heard this name when I studied the history of North America,
If I could heard that pronounced I would totally start call it that too
Same. I see the wiki link, but those symbols mean nothing to me.
google maps is showing Chaacosiano for me
No because it’s not a homogeneous people so it would have many different names/this wouldn’t be coordinated across NA
Not for the same reasons, but “also no, sorry. Still going with Gulf of Mexico.”
I can meet you halfway and pronounce Mexico correctly, but that is beyond my abilities and I’m not ashamed to admit it lol.
I don’t know if the name is too long or too short …