(18) MAIZE. MZ form: None
Comment: This set deals
with forms in Tarascan, Xinca, Lenca, Cacaopera, Matagalpa, Sumu, and
Proto-Mixtecan which look like Proto-Mayan *ʔeʔm. A form pMZ *mo:k is
mentioned, but it is stated that ‘terms for maize . . . are borrowed throughout
Meso-America, though probably not from MZ’ (C/K: 85).
Conclusion: It seems
likely that this is a case of diffusion from Mayan that does not involve
Mixe-Zoquean.
. . .
(21) DOG. MZ form: pM *ʔuku
‘dog’ (Justeson et al. 1985: 23 write *uka)
Diffused to: Yucatec *ʔuk,
as a calendrical day name.
Comment: C/K cite Huastec
ok ‘fox’ and Kanjobalan ʔoʔq, ʔoq ‘coyote’ as possible cognates for the Yucatec
word but state that they nevertheless believe the Yucatec form to be a
borrowing. Justeson et al. (1985: 24) add the observation that <oc> is
also the tenth day name in the ritual calendar;<sup>3</sup> they
argue, more cautiously than C/K, that this must be a late borrowing happening
after the *k > *č shift in pre-Cholan-Tzeltalan and possibly even later.
Conclusion: Probably
entered Yucatecan and Cholan from early Mixean.
(22) AXE. MZ form: pM *puš
‘to cut with a machete’, pM *puš-an ‘axe’ (vs C/K pMZ *pus ‘to cut with a knife
or axe’, *pusan ‘metal (axe?)’)
Diffused to: Nahua
pus-tekì ‘to cut’, te-pos-(tli) ‘axe, metal’, Pokom pos ‘stone war axe’, ax pos
‘wonder worker’, pus ‘witch’, Cakchiquel pos ‘polished stone’; Quiché pos, pus
‘to sacrifice men by removing their hearts, to cut, polished stone, magic
power’, Huave apš ‘to chop with axe’, Proto-Central Otomian *bes-na ‘metal,
lead’, Proto-Popolocan *pos ‘hard stone’.
Comment: Since the form is
limited to pMixean I take it that it diffused from Oto-Manguean languages. If
the item had diffused in Olmec times it is strange that there should be no
trace of it in Zoquean. Cakchiquel and Quiché have pus-nawal ‘magic power,
witch’. The second compound member is a Nahua form. This points to the
possibility of Nahua having been a stage in the diffusion of the item.
Conclusion: The item pos
‘hard stone’ probably spread from Proto-Popolocan into pM, Mayan, Otomian, and
Nahua. From Nahua it diffused further into Mayan languages as a result of
Toltec influence.
. . .
(27) BEE, WASP, WASP’S NEST. MZ
form: Sierra Popoluca ʔokwoŋ (vs C/K pMZ *ʔa:kaw)
Diffused to: Huastec ʔokow,
Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolabal ʔáko (with unexpected first syllable stress).
Comment: C/K posit a pMZ
form where in fact the form is just attested in a single Zoquean language.
Huastec is just as likely a donor as Sierra Popoluca.
Conclusion: A late
diffusion from Huastec. (Søren Wichmann, “A Conservative Look at Diffusion Involving
Mixe-Zoquean Languages,” in Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data
and Linguistic Hypotheses, ed. Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs [One World
Archaeology 29; London: Routledge, 1998], 306-7, 308)
