"Tenochtitlan" meaning in Classical Nahuatl

See Tenochtitlan in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: [te.noːt͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan], [te.not͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan]
Etymology: The ligatured locative suffix -ti-tlan ("below, beneath, at the base of") is preceded by the element *Tenoch-, which is of disputed etymology. The name Tenochtitlan is represented in the Aztec writing system in the form of the glyph shown here, which perhaps suggests Andrews' etymology (see below), unless one or both of the syllables te and noch are here used only phonetically in the glyph, with little indication of the actual meaning (vowel length seldom if ever had any indication in hieroglyphic writing). In addition, while the short vowel in te- is undisputed, the vowel length of -noch-/-nōch- is disputed, as noted by Karttunen. * Andrews (2003) gives tetl "rock" + nōchtli "prickly-pear fruit" + -ti- + -tlan "near", i.e. "At the Place Near Rock-cactus-Fruit". * Lockhart (2001) says "the meaning and nature of tenoch- is not entirely clear despite general consensus that it refers to a type of cactus." * Karttunen (1983) says "NŌCH-TLI 'fruit of the prickly pear cactus' is often cited as a constituent of this name, but it contrasts in vowel length." Head templates: {{head|nci|proper noun|||||cat2=|head=}} Tenochtitlan, {{nci-proper noun}} Tenochtitlan
  1. The capital of the Aztec empire (now Mexico City).
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  "etymology_text": "The ligatured locative suffix -ti-tlan (\"below, beneath, at the base of\") is preceded by the element *Tenoch-, which is of disputed etymology. The name Tenochtitlan is represented in the Aztec writing system in the form of the glyph shown here, which perhaps suggests Andrews' etymology (see below), unless one or both of the syllables te and noch are here used only phonetically in the glyph, with little indication of the actual meaning (vowel length seldom if ever had any indication in hieroglyphic writing). In addition, while the short vowel in te- is undisputed, the vowel length of -noch-/-nōch- is disputed, as noted by Karttunen.\n* Andrews (2003) gives tetl \"rock\" + nōchtli \"prickly-pear fruit\" + -ti- + -tlan \"near\", i.e. \"At the Place Near Rock-cactus-Fruit\".\n* Lockhart (2001) says \"the meaning and nature of tenoch- is not entirely clear despite general consensus that it refers to a type of cactus.\"\n* Karttunen (1983) says \"NŌCH-TLI 'fruit of the prickly pear cactus' is often cited as a constituent of this name, but it contrasts in vowel length.\"",
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      },
      "expansion": "Tenochtitlan",
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    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Tenochtitlan",
      "name": "nci-proper noun"
    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "nci",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
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          "name": "Classical Nahuatl entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The capital of the Aztec empire (now Mexico City)."
      ],
      "id": "en-Tenochtitlan-nci-name-NrOCZbIj",
      "links": [
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        ],
        [
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        ]
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[te.noːt͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[te.not͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Tenochtitlan"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "The ligatured locative suffix -ti-tlan (\"below, beneath, at the base of\") is preceded by the element *Tenoch-, which is of disputed etymology. The name Tenochtitlan is represented in the Aztec writing system in the form of the glyph shown here, which perhaps suggests Andrews' etymology (see below), unless one or both of the syllables te and noch are here used only phonetically in the glyph, with little indication of the actual meaning (vowel length seldom if ever had any indication in hieroglyphic writing). In addition, while the short vowel in te- is undisputed, the vowel length of -noch-/-nōch- is disputed, as noted by Karttunen.\n* Andrews (2003) gives tetl \"rock\" + nōchtli \"prickly-pear fruit\" + -ti- + -tlan \"near\", i.e. \"At the Place Near Rock-cactus-Fruit\".\n* Lockhart (2001) says \"the meaning and nature of tenoch- is not entirely clear despite general consensus that it refers to a type of cactus.\"\n* Karttunen (1983) says \"NŌCH-TLI 'fruit of the prickly pear cactus' is often cited as a constituent of this name, but it contrasts in vowel length.\"",
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Tenochtitlan",
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  ],
  "lang": "Classical Nahuatl",
  "lang_code": "nci",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
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        "Classical Nahuatl lemmas",
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      ],
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[te.noːt͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[te.not͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan]"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Tenochtitlan"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Tenochtitlan meaning in Classical Nahuatl (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Classical Nahuatl dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.