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This contribution concerns once again the name of Chan Chan, the largest pre-Hispanic city in the Americas. Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino has recently argued that the name should be etymologized through a combination of Quechua, which had a weak and short-lived presence on the Peruvian North Coast, and Aymara material, a language which had no known presence there at all. In addition to this major flaw, I discuss further problematic aspects of the proposal. Each of these would suffice to cast considerable doubt on the proposed etymology, but in conjunction they make it advisable to reject it outright. Instead, I continue to defend a methodologically conservative and cautious posture that I have already advocated in my earlier contribution to the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article shows that an interest in differences and similarities in patterns of lexical motivation across languages has a long, if discontinuous, history in Western linguistic thought. The aim of the article is to trace this history by presenting examples that highlight the enduring fascination of authors from very different traditions with recurrent patterns of lexico-semantic associations. It also discusses the significance attributed to these patterns, which ranges from their practical value in etymological research to proving the psychic unity of mankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the most intriguing oral testimonies of the late pre-Hispanic cultures of the Peruvian North Coast are the legends of origin that the Spanish were still able to record. In this article, we explore the names of the (mythological) first rulers and their associates which figure in one particularly famous North-Coast legend, that of Ñaimlap, the mythological founder of Lambayeque. We show that the name of Ñaimlap, as well as those of his courtiers and successors, can be attributed to the Mochica language. We also provide, to the extent possible, etymologies. Two names of the Ñaimlap dynasty, those of the dynastic founder Ñaimlap himself and his grandson Escuñain, reveal avian associations, while that of one of his officers, Ñina Cala, shows maritime connections. Both aspects match the structure of the Ñaimlap myth, in which the ruler arrives from a foreign land via a sea route. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cutting across the linguistic boundaries of the Peruvian Far North and North Coasts, the names of (semi-)mythological and early historical rulers show the same final element -massa. This is the case for the ruler implemented in the Lambayeque region, Pongmassa, his son Pallesmassa, and two lords of the Far North Coast, Cutmassa at Sechura and Chilimasa at Tumbes. Ethnohistorians, linguists, and archaeologists have noted subsets of these similarities, and several accounts regarding the nature and origin of these similarities have been made casually. Here, I present an overview of the set of names ending in -massa, provide new etymologies for the names of Pongmassa and Pallesmassa, review previous interpretations, and discuss different scenarios that could have resulted in the spread of this element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]