Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The observation of natural events; toltec wisdom.

The pictures on this blog demonstrate careful observation of natural events which are at the root of Toltec wisdom. the pictures also provide a starting place for learning the Nahuatl language. The pictures and definitions can be used as a picture dictionary, a 'pictionary'.

Nimili in ocachi niquitzinin de nochten

In Spanish: La milpa mia es la mas chica de todo.
In English: My field is the smallest of all.

This complicated caption was assisted by one of my dictionaries which had an example on page 180 of a complete expression. I have only changed 'nehua' to 'nimili'. This dictionary has been very useful because of the numerous phrases that demonstrate use of the words. The key word providing this phrase was 'quitzinin' which I found in the spanish-to-nahuatl section of the book under the word 'pequeno'. This illustrates the geat utility of this dictionary which has no English but can be used with an English-to-Spanish list of key words.

This is also a picture of my rooftop photographic laboratory that provides the model seeds sprouting at the end of February 2008.

13 Cipactli, 27 Feb 2008, Bean sprouting


The day is 13 Cipactli, 27 Feb. 2008 and the bean is sprouting. It was planted with the corn
and today was its first appearance.

13 Cipactli, 27 Feb 2008, Cherry tree blossom is beginning.


The Cherry tree blossom is beginning. Click on the picture and the entire image will appear. You can scroll to see a larger view of the flower bud and baby leaves.

Monday, February 25, 2008

AMATEUR LINGUISTICS IN MEXICO


I visited Mexico for many years and then purchased a home in Rosarito Beach, Baja California after a marriage with Nancy, the third major love of my life. The home in La Jolla had been sold and Mexico offered a comfortable residence that I could purchase without a mortgage. Nancy loved Mexico and we decided that love for Mexico would be a complement to our marriage so we both admitted that we have a three part love.

It became important to improve our language skills in order to understand the words used by residents who share the country of our joint love. I soon learned that I think without words. It was difficult to find words in Spanish that would express my thoughts that were easily discussed in English. My thoughts remained trapped without words to express them. We are still practicing for more and better ability in the Spanish language.

I was retired but Nancy was still minister of a church so she retained her townhouse in San Diego. We started to live on both sides of the border and learned to cope with the legal border as well as the linguistics barrier. I was in love, an amateur, helpless in the grip of linguistics as well as border guards. I learned to tolerate border guards but I still am engaged with the science of linguistics. I resist any feeling of helplessness by ra-assigning the energy provided by my retirement from the workforce.

I have a healthy curiosity, along with Nancy. We sometimes try to explain our love for Mexico. At other times we just enjoy it especially since she sold her townhouse and bought a home in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. We now live in central colonial Mexico. Easy living was the hook and a fine view was the line that drew us here where we now live.

My curiosity brought me into the study of Mexican culture and then study of the words recorded by the early explorers of Mexico. Cortez and his military expedition in search of gold were first. They were soon accompanied by a group of Catholic scholars that recorded the fluent Nahuatl teachings in Spanish letters for King Carlos of Spain who wanted to know the thoughts of his new subjects. Some of the words written in Spanish letters survived the perilous voyages to Spain but many of the surviving manuscripts were captured. I thought that the surviving words would be the key that would unlock the ancient secrets that fuel my love for Mexico.

My library has expaned as I read travel stories, archaeological descriptions, admired the work of ancient artists. etc.,eyc. A bibliography in the appendix shows the variety of books which I have accumulated and attempted to understand.

Surviving copies of sixteenth century manuscripts became the resources for many scholars of linguistics. My education did not include linguistics and I have become an amateur student of an extensive school of academic linguistics. This explans my dual meanings of amateur, as a lover, and as a student with no academic qualifications.

I did not admire the rules grammar when in college. I thought they were extra impediments when I already knew how to express myself in writing. The Spanish scholars of sixteenth century used their understanding of Latin grammar as they developed grammar to organize the fluent speech of Nahuatl scholars. I attempted to understand Carocci's
sixteenth century Spanish book in an English translation. It is well written but it did not teach me to read the recorded Nahuatl speakers with any great facility. Then I attempted to understand the "Grammar of Classical Nahuatl by Andrews. I developed an admiration for the difficulty of understanding Nahuatl but still did not learn how to read.

I started to study " " by Lockhart and started to study " " by Sullivan. The maze became more difficult as I continued to be frustrated before reaching my goal. I discovered the " " mailing list and began e-mail communication with Anderson. He was extremely gracious with my amateur leanings and mailed a CD with many helpful sentence parts he had gleaned from many years as a professor of Linguistics. Then another friend in San Miguel made me a zerox copy of an illustrated book for self teaching of young Spanish students of Nahuatl. I can read and repeat the 300+ snippets of conversation in that book which is in a modern dialect of the still living language.

An example of my studies is included in another google document. "
CUICAPEUHCAYOTL" which I found on my hard drive with creation date 07/26/2007. It was created while we were in Rosarito last year! I remembered that study while reviewing the online file of documents in Project Gutenberg. My studies continue. Another example is in anoher google document: TLAMAUIZ MAHMANI TLACECELHTIAedited on December 3, 2007 9:51 AM by Oenthomas.

Another reference
http://www.sil.org/mexico/nahuatl/guerrero/L003-PuedeHablar-nah.htm

28 Jan 2008 I went to the Ignacio Ramirez market and located the area where merchants from Guerrero have their booths. I took a copy of lesson 30 from the above referenced book in order to show the resources available for self study. There I was able to contact a speaker of Nahuatl, Florencio,who wants to consider trading his knowledge for my translations and help in speaking English. It that San Miguel de Allende has suffieient resources for study of the document referenced above by www.sil.org

Elotl in toctli, corn sprouting, el Maiz brotando



















Today the new corn plant emerged in the planter on our roof at Callejon Valle de Maiz, 5A, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

The date on my computer calendar is 25 Feb, 20o8. This corresponds to Tonalli 11 Quiahuitl in trecena 1 Atl which you can locate on the sacred calendar which I have posted at
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d7b4c3p_68f4jp6qz9

This corn kernel was placed into the ground on a Saturday 16 Feb, 20o7 which corresponds to the tonalli 2 Itzcuintli in the same trecena as you can see on the Sacred calender referenced in the link above.

There is an interesting website about sprouting http://www.fotosearch.es/photovivid/brotando/UNP116/

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Keeping a calendar by Trecenas.

DESIGN OF THE MEXICAN CALENDAR BY TRECENAS


The Mexican calendar designers choose to name twenty ritual days and then count Days in cycles of 13. This can be best demonstrated by making a table of 13 square spaces in each of twenty rows. I will now explain the system by placing day numbers in sequence into the squares, starting with day 1 in row 1 and continuing down the column to row 13. In row 14 the days repeat from 1 and continues counting days as each day number is placed in a new square until the column is filled with day 7 in row 20 then continues to column 2 with day 8, etc,etc. The final row is filled with day 13 and a new table of ritual days can be started in row 1 with day 1. The table of 20 rows and 13 columns has been filled with 260 days. I do not know the prehistoric Mexican reason for this choice of counting days. My guess is that they had a twenty day ceremonial week and decided to extend the calendar by counting ceremonial weeks to correspond to the number of Cosmic Moon Cycles. The result was a 260 day ritual calendar which does not correspond with
the agricultural seasons and with more advanced observations of a Cosmic Year Cycle.

1 Cipactli, caiman1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
2 Ehecatl, wind2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
3 Calli, house3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
4 Cuetzpallin, Lizard4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
5 Coatl, snake5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
6 Miquiztli. death6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
7 Mazatl, deer7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
8 Tochtli, rabbit8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
9 Atl, water9
3
10
4
11
5
1
6
13
7
1
8
2
10 Itzcuintli, dog10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
11 Ozomatli, monkey11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
12 Malinalli, grass12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
13 Acatl, reed13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
1 Ocelotl, jaguar1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
2 Cuautli, eagle2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
3 Cozcacuahtli, king vulture3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
4 Ollin, movement4
11
5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
5 Tecpatl, flint5
12
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
6 Quiahuitl, rain
6
13
7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
7 Xochitl, flower7
1
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
5
12
6
13


It is interesting that the last square of this ritual calendar ends on day 13 corresponding to a full count of moons.

There is another viewpoint for the same calendar, organized in columns of 13 sequential number/day names
and rows of 20 trecenas. Each complete row ( a trecena) is then given the name of the first day of this row. The first row is 1 Cipactli, second row 1 Ocelotl, third row 1 Mazatl, etc to the 20th row which is 1 Tochtli. This table contains 260 named days. The name of each day is a combination of the number heading a column and a word from a trecena. This chart can be mounted on wall and each day can be marked as complete at sunset. At the end of 260 days another identical page can be used starting again with 1 Cipactli. My intuition tells me that some prehistoric timekeepers used exactly this technique for recording days. New pages may be added as long as a sequence of timekeepers keep the record.

This serves me s an example for further examination of calendar construction. There may have been competing timekeepers that used another type of page or even piles of stones, marks on boards, or marked rocks, etc.

THIS CHART IS TRUNCATED ON RIGHT MARGIN BY BLOGGER


I often want to know how the date on my kitchen calendar relates to the sacred calendar. This format of the sacred calendar is useful for observing the relationship because nahuatl day names always have a number followed by a name. I can look down any column headed by the number until finding the name to find the exact location in the 260 day sequence of the sacred calendar. This calendar format is published in my documents at:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d7b4c3p_68f4jp6qz9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Miquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacauhtli
Ollin
TecpatlQuiahuitlXochitlCipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Miquizlti
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzqintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacauhtli
Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochitl
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Miquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochitl
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cucahtli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochitl
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzqquintlitli
Ozomati
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcauhtli
Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacauhtli
Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzcuintli
Ozomati
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacauhtli
Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacuauhtli
Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomati
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuautli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xoctli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mzatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomati
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
CozcacauhtliOllin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli
Cipactli
Ehecatl
Calli
Cuetzpallin
Coatl
Mizquiztli
Mazatl
Tochtli
Atl
Itzquintli
Ozomatli
Malinalli
Acatl
Ocelotl
Cuauhtli
Cozcacauhtli Ollin
Tecpatl
Quiahuitl
Xochtli

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Iqualoca in metzli, Eclipse of the moon, Eclipse de la luna.





Nahuatl, Moon being eaten,
as predicted by those who keep calendars.

Literal translations;
Spanish, mordida Luna,
English, bitten Moon.

The Calendar data for this day 20 February 2008 or 9 ollin, was copied from the website:
http://www.azteccalendar.com/calendar-calculator.html

Calendar day 20 February 2008 is correlated with 9 ollin by use of the correlation established by Francisco Rodriguez Cortes.

Francisco is a current day keeper calendar keeper, who lives in Chiapas, Mexico.

The days were counted by more than one method. the day 9 ollin is from the count of days known as the tonalpohualli, the sacred calendar.


I will soon publish a demonstration of the calendar of the entire sacred year. It becomes complicated when the details are described.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tonatiuh iquizayan, Sun comes out,


Picture that is called 'sunrise' in English.
Foto del Legada del sol in Spanish.

Tonatiuh iquizayan in Nahuatl, 'place where sun comes out' in literal English.

The camera was pointed toward the rising sun from my home on the edge of a decline into the valley of the Rio Laja. By pointing the camera away from the sun I captured a picture of the valley below.

This second picture is to the west in English,

to the 'poniente' in Spanish,

and 'Tonatiuh icalaquian' in Nahuatl, 'place where the sun goes in' in literal English.

This is an interesting pair of pictures in Nahuatl as they are described exactly in the native language. There are alternate dictionary translations of the English words East and West but I provide these more pictorial translations.

This is the beginning of an interesting day where the calendar keepers predict that there will be a total eclipse of the moon soon after it rises tonight in the East. This sort of prediction has been used to claim that they possess magical powers. I do not claim magical power but I do claim that the understanding of differing languages is improved when I can be somewhat intuitive in using a camera for producing instructive pictures.










Monday, February 18, 2008

Calaqui in Tonatiuh; puesta del sol, sunset.

Nahatl books were pictures which were 'read' by those trained in the schools. Spanish Friars wrote, in Spanish letters, what they heard from those who survived the armies of Cortez. The words were utilized by the Friars for sending explanations to Carlos V in Spain.

I have several books that serve as Dictionaries of the Nahuatl language and several more books that explain various aspects of the culture. Think of this picture as a part of a picture dictionary. Word translations follow. This is a 'sunset' in the English language. One dictionary translates the English word 'sunset' into Nahuatl 'calaqui in tonatiuh' by those who recorded the sounds of the native language. A Spanish speaker here would call this a picture of 'la puesta del sol'. We therefore have three sound descriptions for the same picture; 'sunset', 'calaqui in tonatiuh', and 'puesta del sol.'.

I will attempt to explain more; the sounds of Nahuatl have many associations. I am using the Nahuatl sounds associated to the photograph taken from my window in San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mx. toward the West across the Rio Laja valley. This is an example of a daily vista which could have been seen by a native here two thousand years ago and it is an example of the sounds which may have made by the Nahuatl observer. I record my intuitive impressions of the meaning of the sounds.

The similar daily views were very impressive to a Nahuatl observer who had no means to control the repetitions. He observed that the solar body was a source of annual growth of his corn. This highly respected source had been assigned a sound, 'Tonatiuh'. There was another pair of sounds 'cal-aqui' associated with a picture of someone going into a house. The sound 'in' was used to show a connection between two pictures. The entire picture association was placed into sound as 'calaqui in Tonatiuh'.

This sound represented the sun going into a house.

The entire mythology of ancient picture makers relates to the passage of the sun through the underworld at night and its emergence a dawn of the next day.

My next pictures will show the emergence of Tonaiuh from the underworld.

About Me

My photo
San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, Mexico
I am a retired Physical Scientist returning to my early interests in Social Science. I now live in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico; and another home in Rosarito Beach, Mexico; and other homes of friends in San Diego, Ca.