Last week I traveled to the center of the current-day Ch'orti' Maya speaking world, Jocotán, Guatamala, on the road between Chiquimula and Copán, Honduras. I went on a quest which was primarily linguistic - in search of the meaning of the word teosinte or at least the phrase teo.
I believe I know the meaning of teo (island), but I went searching for confirmation. Eight of the 10 known place name uses of the word teosinte are located within 50 miles of the El Salvador - Honduras - Guatemala tri-border point - prime Ch'orti' area. And the only other place name uses of the phrase teo within that region are both on islands.
First I went to Radio Ch'orti', one block from my room at the only hotel in town. The radio station quickly redirected me to the Académica de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala and the Comunidad Linguística Ch'orti'. After a little time there, I ended up speaking with José García. He let me know that neither teo nor teosinte exist in Ch'orti'. He encouraged me to learn Ch'orti' and I told him that someday I might be back to do that.
It is a little disappointing that I still have not confirmed the meaning of the very important word teosinte, the grass that is the predecessor to corn. But it is not surprising since it has not been used in hybridizing corn for hundreds, and more likely, thousands, of years by the Ch'orti'. In addition, the current Ch'orti' area is devoid of islands so it is not surprising that they may have lost the original word for island. The search will continue in Mexico, with the linguistic cousins of the Ch'orti': the Ch'ol, the Chontal, the Tzeltal, and the Tzotzil.
José also gave me a list of the 20 tzolkin day sign names in Ch'orti'. Apparently these are not necessarily the original classic-era Choltian names, but rather Ch'orti' translations of the current day sign names in either Quiche' or Yucatec. As such they are likely closer to the original names than the Quiche' or Yucatec names but still might be off. I will introduce them through this blog, but still mention what I think may have been the original day sign names.
