[jbovlaste] Re: Mesoamerica and Central America

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

Robin says discussion of vocabulary should be on the jbovlaste list, so I'm 
sending it to there.

On Wednesday 10 June 2009 14:47:13 A. PIEKARSKI wrote:
> Central America: bemtcojo'e/bemtcone'o
> Mesoamerica: tolcitnanbe'o OR

I like "bemtcone'o", though it should have the place structure of "bemro" 
rather than that of "cnebo". I think "dzenanbe'o" is better 
than "tolcitnanbe'o".

> Given that Mesoamerica is Mesoamérica in the local language, Spanish, and
> that many other languages use something similar (e.g. German: same as
> English, Polish: Mezoameryka, Russian: МЕСОАМЕРИКА), wouldn't a type 4
> fu'ivla be appropriate? 
> mu'i mi'e andrus

Do the Aztecs and Mayans have a name for the area?

On Thursday 11 June 2009 09:26:49 Jorge Llambías wrote:
> I once proposed "mriko" for the Spanish sense of "América", as I
> always found the etymologies of bemro and ketco a bit nonsensical. If
> we had "mriko", then "berti mriko", "midju mriko" and "snanu mriko"
> follow.

I think "mriko" is a good idea. We have "bemjoitco", but it gets awkwardly 
long in compounds. How about a gismu for the Old World too?

On Thursday 11 June 2009 09:49:36 A. PIEKARSKI wrote:
> I was going to suggest "nanbe'o", but it might suggest Central
> America + Mexico, whereas Central America supposedly
> excludes Mexico.

Yeah, I think "nanbe'o" includes Mexico, whereas "bemtcone'o" doesn't.

On Thursday 11 June 2009 10:07:45 Jorge Llambías wrote:
> Probably xipybe'o or bemxispo are better for Central America + Mexico
> (although those might even include some parts of the US I suppose).

That would exclude Belize, where the official language is English. 
Similarly "tcoxispo" excludes the Guyanas and Brazil. Come to think of it, 
what should we call Lusitanics? Brazilians are the biggest group of 
Lusitanics, but there are others.

Pierre