Heart

Southern Uto-Aztecan words for "heart", fall into two groups: those derived from *sura and those derived from *hikwɨyawa. The forms are not neatly grouped, and indeed several groups have reflexes of both proto-forms, making it necessary to reconstruct both roots for PSUA, though they may have had different meanings, *sura probably referred to the heart as physical organ, while *hikwɨyawa referred to the heart abstractly as the animating force, or spirit, of living beings.

Heart and Breath: In SUA and in PUA, words for "heart" are semantically related to words for "breath" and "life":

For example, Stubbs (2011#302) gives *hikwis "breath, spirit, heart". Voeglin, Voeglin & Hale (1962:140) give *hikwɨ(sɨ) "to breathe" from cognates in Tohono O'odham (ʔíibhɨ), Hopi (híkwsɨ) and Raramuri (iwí). In Nahuan we see that both the word for "breath" and for "heart" as well as for "to live" are derived from the proto-Corachol-Nahua root *hiyaori, attesting to the cultural and semantic association between these words, also later on in the development of the SUA languages.

This suggests that these roots participate in a semantic complex of words related generally to "life force", "soul", "animating principle". It seems this force has been located at different times and among different groups in the breath or in the heart. Also words for "blood" and "liver" participate in this complex, though they seem to be more related to "thought" and "emotions".

*sura

Tepiman

Proto-Tepiman: *hura-di < *sura-yi

Nevome: huura-di

Northern Tepehuán Baborigame: úrai "corazón de persona" (Bascom 1998:289)

South-Eastern Tepehuán: /hur/ <jur> (Garcia Salido & Reyes Taboada 2023:211)

Sonoran

proto-Sonoran *sura

Cahita: suua "interior, corazón de alguna cosa" (Buelna 1890 (1989:225))

Yaqui: sula "corazón de animal (Buitimea et al. 2016:101)

Mayo: suula

Guarijío: sulá, sulú, surá (Medina Murillo 2012:173)

Tarahumaran: surá

Cora?

Proto-Cora: *sɨíh-niuˀukari < *suúr-nioka-ri

• Mariteco (Chuisetyaaka/Kuáxa'taana): xáijnyu'kari (Muñiz 2024); xaíjnyu'ucari (Casad 2019).
• Meseño (Yáujkéna): sʌéjeniu'ucari /sɨéheniuˀukari/ (McMahon & McMahon 1959:26)

Observation: *suure, the word for "blood" in Corachol (Wixárika xuure, Náayeri ʂúure'e) looks like it could be related from this word, but in fact it cannot be as PSUA *u gives proto-Corachol-Nahua *ɨ except in labial environments where it may give *u - but this is not a labial environment. Rather proto-Corachol *suure "blood" should be seen as related to proto-Corachol-Nahua *sauri "excretion, dirt, waste".

*hikwɨyawa

In PSUA *hikʷɨyawa was a stem, composed of two roots *hikʷɨ(s) probably meaning "breath" and the suffix *-yawa, which seems to have been used to derive abstract nouns referring to something like an essence or the "property of being X", something like the suffix -ness in English, or indeed the cognate suffix -yo:tl in Colonial Nahuatl (Launey 19????). The literal meaning of PSUA *hikʷɨyawa thus seems to have been something like "it's breathness" (inalienably possessed), referring to the life force of a living entity.

In minor Sonoran this composite stem was reinterpreted as a root, and added the absolutive suffix -ri. The unstressed medial vowel /ɨ/ was syncopated giving *hikʷyawa-ri, and the resulting consonant cluster /kʷy/ was resolved by deleting the /kʷ/ giving *hiyawari.

Tepiman

Proto-Tepiman: *ibɨdaga-yi < *híkʷɨyáwa

Tepehuano del Norte, Tupúri: ibuadɨ "corazón" (Carrillo & Estrada Fernández 2024:140)

Pima Bajo de Yepachi: ibdaga "corazón" (Estrada Fernández 1998:132)

Tepehuán del Norte, Baborigame: iibɨdagai "Corazón, lo que palpita, lo que siente emociones" (Bascom 1998:105)

Tarahumara-Guarijío

Guarijío: hiiká "heart" (Medina Murillo, Ana Aurora. 2012. Diccionario Léxico-Morfológico del Guarijío. México, D.F.: UNAM/Universidad de Sonora.:42, from Johnson & Weitlaner Johnson 1947)

Ópatan

• Eudeve: híbes (apparently loaned from a Tepiman source where /kw/ in *hikwis has become /b/)

Cahitan

• hiapsi < *híyáwri

Cahita: hiepsa "vivo", hiepsec "tener corazón", hiepsitua "dar alma, animar" (Buelna [1890] 1989:212)

Yaqui hiapsi "corazón, alma, espíritu, fantasma, vida" <jiapsi>(Buitimea Valenzuela et al. 2016:60)

Nahuan

• yo:l < Proto-Corachol-Nahua *hiyáori

Earlier etymological proposals: In 1956, in his "La Filosofia Náhuatl: Estudiada en sus Fuentes" Miguel León-Portilla, proposed that Nahuatl yollo:tl "heart" was derived from the same root as Nahuatl o:lin "movement": "Como comprobación de esto puede añadirse que yóllotl (corazón), es un derivado de la misma raíz que ollin (movimiento), lo que deja entrever la más primitiva concepción náhuatl de la vida: yoliliztli; y del corazón: yóllotl, como movimiento, tendencia". Comparing these words with their cognates in the Uto-Aztecan languages, we can see that this etymology is not possible, as o:lin derives from a different root *hora. Though León-Portilla provided no evidence for his etymology apart from the similarity in form the proposed semantic link, the proposal has been widely influential in studies of Nahuatl worldview, and is often repeated by subsequent scholars of "Aztec philosophy".

Coracholan

• Proto-Corachol: iyauri < Proto-Corachol-Nahuan *hiyaori

Náayeri: ruuri < *yuuri < *iyaúri

Wixárika 'iyaari < *iyáuri

Development

PSUA *híkʷɨyáwa "life force, spirit"

Tepiman *'ibɨdaga "heart"

Sonoran: *hiyawari < *hikʷyawa-ri

Guarijío: hiiká "heart" <*hikʷa < hikʷya

Cahitan hiapsi "heart" < *hiyaw-ri

Corachol-Nahuan *hiyaori

Coracholan: *iyau-ri

Wixárika iyaa-ri "heart, soul"

Náayeri ruu-ri "heart", "life"

Nahuan *yo:li "life" < *yao-ri "heart"

/yo:llo:/ < yo:l-yo:- "heart"

/yo:lloh/ < yo:l-yoh- "heart"

Nahuan ihiyo: "breath"