Heart
From SUALEX
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. ʷ 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
This root is attested in Tepiman and Sonoran languages, and so it must be reconstructed for all of SUA, but it appears to have been lost in Corachol-Nahuan (pace Stubbs 2011#1165), which seemingly generalized the abstract root *hikʷɨyawa "life force, spirit" to also cover the anatomical sense.
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 (Brambila 1976:538)
Cora?
The Cora word for heart may be derived from *sura. This has been proposed by Stubbs 2011:#1165. He argues that the /sɨé/ sequence of Meseño Náayeri /sɨéheniuˀukari/ could be derived from *sura as according to him Cora frequently loose intervocalic liquids.[1] I am skeptical of this proposal, but it is not impossible.
There is another possible origin of this Cora word, namely that it is related to the root *sɨ "heat, warmth, sustenance", found in the Cora word for "sun" and in many Wixárika words.
Proto-Cora: *sɨáh-eniuˀukari < *sura-enioka-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".
Nahuan?
Stubbs 2011:1165 relates Nahuan /ʃil-la:n/ <xillān> "breast, side" and /ʃilo:-tɫ/ <xilō-tl> "baby corn stalk". But PSUA *su and PCN *sɨ should give Nahuan /se/ or /si/, not /ʃi/. A better fit would be Nahuan se:lik "fresh, green, new", but the semantics do not match very well.
*hikʷɨyawa
In PSUA *hikʷɨyawa was a stem, composed of two roots *hikwɨ(sɨ) 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)
- Tepehuán del Norte, Baborigame: iibɨdagai "Corazón, lo que palpita, lo que siente emociones" (Bascom 1998:105)
- Pima Bajo de Yepachi: ibdaga "corazón" (Estrada Fernández 1998:132)
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
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"
- Coracholan: *iyau-ri
- Corachol-Nahuan *hiyaori
Notes
- ↑ What I think actually happens in most of these cases is that the liquid is CVLV is metathesized to CVVL and the word final liquid becomes h. We see this in *siari "sand" > *seh, and *sauri "quail" > sauh. This suggests that *sura could become *sɨah, but since a-e sometimes vary in Corachol, it could also be *sɨeh.