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Description
·In ancient Mesoamerica there were only two civilization sophisticated enough to have complex writing systems: the Aztec and the Mayan. Most of what was recorded in the pre-Columbian era was destroyed during the Spanish conquest. However, some codices did survive.

·Within these codices there is mention of a land called Aztlán. According to scholar translation of these codices, Aztlán is the place where the Mexica (pronounced Meshica) ancestors where from. There is no geographical description of Aztlán except that it lays North or Northwest of Tenochtitlán, which is present day Mexico City.

·The Spanish conquest of the Americas is one of the most popular and most studied conquests in world history. One of the reasons for this is the extensive documentation of the Spanish during their discovery and subsequent conquest. The Spanish brought with them not only linguists but also chronologists who recorded history as it took place.

·When the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán lead by Hernán Cortés, they obtained a valuable asset, an interpreter. The woman that would live in Mexican infamy either for better or for worse: Malinche. (But that's another story.) The chronologist that were with Cortés documented that the people mentioned that their ancestors were from a place called Aztlán.

·In Mexico today, Aztlán is considered a mythical place. It is seen similar to our view and use of Timbuktu as some far away mythical place. However, Timbuktu is not mythical at all. In fact, it was a real place that existed in Africa hundreds of years ago.

·Mormon scholars have a few theories of where Aztlán could have been. Some believe that Aztlán was in present day Utah and that the Mexica were decedents of the Gadianton robbers. And others believe that Aztlán is the ancient Náhuatl word for Israel, but there still is no definite translation. Knowing that the nahua people explained that Aztlán was located north-northwest; either of these theories is plausible. I personally think it's the latter, simply because it's the most elegant theory and is the most linguistically interesting theory.

·Linguistic notes:
(Aztlán) Pronounced:
Iberian Spanish: /aθtlán/ (Athtlán) th-unvoiced
American Spanish /astlán/ (Astlán)

·It was not pronounced as such in Náhuatl or 16th century Spanish. The Spanish linguists used the Spanish (Latin) alphabet when translating Náhuatl. They used the letters that corresponded with the sounds in their mother language, being Spanish. Many of the sounds of the letters are still the same to this day in modern Spanish, but one letter that has had a significant sound change was the (Z). The (Z) in 16th century Spanish was pronounced with a cedilla  /ç /. (*note: this is now used in French to indicate a fricative palatal instead of plosive velar.) Therefore the word Aztlán would have been pronounced /açtlán/.

Just another linguistic side note: This is just for fun!
The evolution of Náhuatl into English is quite different. When a Náhuatl word is adopted into English use and pronunciation it usually losses one of the consonants in its consonant pairs or groupings if they are foreign to English consonant patterns. For example: Náhuatl is pronounced in English /nawat/, Moctezuma is pronounce /motezuma/ or /montezuma/ the latter is a result of hispanization and then later crossing over into English.  So, if we were to take Aztlán and evolve it into English from its original sound, how would it sound?

/açtlán/  Origianl sound
    ¯
/aztlán/  Modern American Spanish
     ¯
/azlán/ Removal of non-English consonant grouping
     ¯
/azlan/ Removal of accent mark resulting in stress shift to penultimate syllable
(from grave to llana)
  The word could stop there or it could evolve one more time to change from the (z)
       voiced to the (s) unvoiced.
     ¯
/aslan/

Does Aslan ring any bells?
What kind of ideas pop into your mind? Maybe C.S. Lewis was on to something...?

If you have gotten this far and are able to keep up, then I am very very impressed!!



*Foot note: (Chicano activists claim that Aztlán was California and all the southern US states west of the Mississippi and that they will one day reclaim that land. In this case, Aztlán is used as a form a political propaganda and has little to no historical or scholarly value.)

Description
·In ancient Mesoamerica there were only two civilization sophisticated enough to have complex writing systems: the Aztec and the Mayan. Most of what was recorded in the pre-Columbian era was destroyed during the Spanish conquest. However, some codices did survive.

·Within these codices there is mention of a land called Aztlán. According to scholar translation of these codices, Aztlán is the place where the Mexica (pronounced Meshica) ancestors where from. There is no geographical description of Aztlán except that it lays North or Northwest of Tenochtitlán, which is present day Mexico City.

·The Spanish conquest of the Americas is one of the most popular and most studied conquests in world history. One of the reasons for this is the extensive documentation of the Spanish during their discovery and subsequent conquest. The Spanish brought with them not only linguists but also chronologists who recorded history as it took place.

·When the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán lead by Hernán Cortés, they obtained a valuable asset, an interpreter. The woman that would live in Mexican infamy either for better or for worse: Malinche. (But that's another story.) The chronologist that were with Cortés documented that the people mentioned that their ancestors were from a place called Aztlán.

·In Mexico today, Aztlán is considered a mythical place. It is seen similar to our view and use of Timbuktu as some far away mythical place. However, Timbuktu is not mythical at all. In fact, it was a real place that existed in Africa hundreds of years ago.

·Mormon scholars have a few theories of where Aztlán could have been. Some believe that Aztlán was in present day Utah and that the Mexica were decedents of the Gadianton robbers. And others believe that Aztlán is the ancient Náhuatl word for Israel, but there still is no definite translation. Knowing that the nahua people explained that Aztlán was located north-northwest; either of these theories is plausible. I personally think it's the latter, simply because it's the most elegant theory and is the most linguistically interesting theory.

·Linguistic notes:
(Aztlán) Pronounced:
Iberian Spanish: /aθtlán/ (Athtlán) th-unvoiced
American Spanish /astlán/ (Astlán)

·It was not pronounced as such in Náhuatl or 16th century Spanish. The Spanish linguists used the Spanish (Latin) alphabet when translating Náhuatl. They used the letters that corresponded with the sounds in their mother language, being Spanish. Many of the sounds of the letters are still the same to this day in modern Spanish, but one letter that has had a significant sound change was the (Z). The (Z) in 16th century Spanish was pronounced with a cedilla  /ç /. (*note: this is now used in French to indicate a fricative palatal instead of plosive velar.) Therefore the word Aztlán would have been pronounced /açtlán/.

Just another linguistic side note: This is just for fun!
The evolution of Náhuatl into English is quite different. When a Náhuatl word is adopted into English use and pronunciation it usually losses one of the consonants in its consonant pairs or groupings if they are foreign to English consonant patterns. For example: Náhuatl is pronounced in English /nawat/, Moctezuma is pronounce /motezuma/ or /montezuma/ the latter is a result of hispanization and then later crossing over into English.  So, if we were to take Aztlán and evolve it into English from its original sound, how would it sound?

/açtlán/  Origianl sound
    ¯
/aztlán/  Modern American Spanish
     ¯
/azlán/ Removal of non-English consonant grouping
     ¯
/azlan/ Removal of accent mark resulting in stress shift to penultimate syllable
(from grave to llana)
  The word could stop there or it could evolve one more time to change from the (z)
       voiced to the (s) unvoiced.
     ¯
/aslan/

Does Aslan ring any bells?
What kind of ideas pop into your mind? Maybe C.S. Lewis was on to something...?

If you have gotten this far and are able to keep up, then I am very very impressed!!



*Foot note: (Chicano activists claim that Aztlán was California and all the southern US states west of the Mississippi and that they will one day reclaim that land. In this case, Aztlán is used as a form a political propaganda and has little to no historical or scholarly value.)