The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread 36

[Lexicus]

There's a lot of places in California that start with either "San" or "Santa." Is there a reason for this? It has a close proximity to Mexico, where a lot of people speak Spanish, so is it something to do with that?

What Phrossack said, I'll add specifically that "San" means "Saint" and "Santa/Santo" means "holy".

The whole part of the US that we stole from Mexico has lots of place names like this. San Antonio is a city in Texas for example.

 

[Traitorfish]

It was originally a Spanish colony, then a territory of Mexico. The Spanish liked to name just about everything after Catholic ideas and saints.

It makes you wonder why Mexico City is just, well, "Mexico City". Was there perhaps previously a longer-form name with the appropriate Catholic garnishing, like how Chihuahua City is formally "San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua" and it was removed in one Mexico's occasional bouts of anti-clerical enthusiasm, or did it just never have one to begin with?

 

[Lexicus]

It makes you wonder why Mexico City is just, well, "Mexico City". Was there perhaps previously a longer-form name with the appropriate Catholic garnishing, like how Chihuahua City is formally "San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua" and it was removed in one Mexico's occasional bouts of anti-clerical enthusiasm, or did it just never have one to begin with?

Apparently it was renamed "Mexico" by the Spanish because they couldn't pronounce Tenochtitlan.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

How do you pronounce that anyways?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

How do you pronounce that anyways?

Tenochtitlan? I pronounce it 'mecks-eh-co sit-ee.'

 

[Lexicus]

No idea, my uncle probably knows, he's way into all that Central American history stuff.

 

[sophie]

There's a lot of places in California that start with either "San" or "Santa." Is there a reason for this? It has a close proximity to Mexico, where a lot of people speak Spanish, so is it something to do with that?

San and Santa both = saint/holy. Settlements in California originally developed around missions and presidios (forts), and, just as Churches in Europe are named after a patron saint (e.g. Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente in Milan, St. Paul's Cathedral in London, etc.), those missions were usually dedicated to a patron Saint, and the town/settlement that ultimately grew up around that mission retained the name.

Misión de Santa Clara de Asis = Santa Clara, CA (Saint Clare of Assisi)
El Presidio Real de San Francisco = San Francisco (Saint Francis of Assisi)
El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara/Misión de La Señora Bárbara = Santa Barbara (Saint Barbara)
La Misión del Glorios Precursor de Jesu Cristo, Nuestro Señor San Juan Bautista = San Juan Bautista, CA (Saint John the Baptist)

etc.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How do you pronounce that anyways?

"Tenochtitlan"? I've heard several ways, one of which I can't adequately convey here because I don't know the right symbols. We were taught one way in the anthropology course I took about the Native North Americans (Central America is considered part of North America).

Here's one way that's somewhat close to one of the ways I was told (more of a 'sh' sound than a 'ch' sound):

The rest is as I was taught.

 

[sophie]

How do you pronounce that anyways?

In Nahuatl:

/te.noːt͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan/ where t͡ʃ = ch in English, t͡ɬ = an affricate sound, where ɬ is a voiceless dental/alveolar lateral fricative (e.g. ll in Welsh). to make ɬ approximately, make an l sound with your tongue, but just blow air so it moves around both sides of your tongue. Makes a sort of whistly sound. t͡ɬ is that, but with a t-sound in front of it. Sounds like a click followed by a whistle.

In Spanish:
/te.not͡ʃ.ti.tlán/

 

[Birdjaguar]

New Mexico has a similar heritage and has many, many towns, roads and places with Spanish names. Santa Fe was originally: La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.

 

[W|M]

It was originally a Spanish colony, then a territory of Mexico. The Spanish liked to name just about everything after Catholic ideas and saints.

Spoiler :

The territory highlighted on this map, as well as Mega-Texas, used to be part of Mexico

The whole part of the US that we stole from Mexico has lots of place names like this. San Antonio is a city in Texas for example.

Several US states have Spanish-language names because of this, too (California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado)

Apparently it was renamed "Mexico" by the Spanish because they couldn't pronounce Tenochtitlan.

Helps that the Aztecs called themselves "Mexica"

 

[Takhisis]

In Nahuatl:

/te.noːt͡ʃ.ˈtí.t͡ɬan/ where t͡ʃ = ch in English, t͡ɬ = an affricate sound, where ɬ is a voiceless dental/alveolar lateral fricative (e.g. ll in Welsh). to make ɬ approximately, make an l sound with your tongue, but just blow air so it moves around both sides of your tongue. Makes a sort of whistly sound. t͡ɬ is that, but with a t-sound in front of it. Sounds like a click followed by a whistle.

In Spanish:
/te.not͡ʃ.ti.tlán/

It's /te.nɔt͡ʃ.ti.tlán/, (with a lower mid-back rounded vowel, ɔ, rather than o) actually, but otherwise it's spot on.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The territory highlighted on this map, as well as Mega-Texas, used to be part of Mexico

I wonder what the borders would look like today if Texas and California were still part of Mexico.

 

[Lexicus]

The territory highlighted on this map, as well as Mega-Texas, used to be part of Mexico

Longboi Texas

 

[Kyriakos]

So, will someone start the final game of thrones season thread?

 

[Traitorfish]

I wonder what the borders would look like today if Texas and California were still part of Mexico.

Absolut Vodka got in a bit of trouble a few years ago for imagining that:

What's weird to me is, if that's the direction they're taking, why doesn't Mexico extend down to Colombia?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Got into trouble? With the moderators, or?

Also, it looks like stairs.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Also, it looks like stairs.

0/10 border

 

[Dachs]

What's weird to me is, if that's the direction they're taking, why doesn't Mexico extend down to Colombia?

because history is hard and Iturbide didn't last that long anyway

because it's funnier to just target the garden-variety American racists

Got into trouble? With the moderators, or?

With segments of the public.

The ad was ill-advised. Nationalism is touchy, and implying that one country should own land and people that it doesn't currently own is usually a bad idea. Some Americans have a whole stupid complex about Mexicans and they flew off the handle about it.

 

[Synobun]

How on earth do you buy games for people on Steam now ever since they added "region restrictions"?

I'm completely willing to pay more due to currency differences but it's not even an option as far as I can tell.

How do?