Compared: Mongolian vs Nahuatl

Ancient History
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While listening and comparing the way these two languages sound, I found the comparison to be quite interesting, especially in light of Dean's previous Mongolian-Aztec remarks:

Mongolian Video, start about 3:28 in:
https://youtu.be/yyzCR_3c7eE?t=208
2025-05-24 EDIT: The video has been removed/marked private, this is a backup:

Another backup: https://web.archive.org/web/20201007113810/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyzCR_3c7eE&gl=US&hl=en

Nahuatl Video:

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Soretna,

Perhaps the narrator of that piece on the Mongolian language could tell us where Meksico is? I think that something like 25% of Mongolia lies within Chinese territory, it must be in there because it is not marked on any map of Mongolia.

Cheers!

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So, could the name “Mexico” trace back to an old Mongolian word?
A plain-language tour of one possible path

1. The puzzle

People sometimes notice that many Mexicans and many Mongolians share many visual similarities such as straight black hair, a certain eye shape, and heavy cheekbones, etc. From there - and other considerations - a bold question may follow:

What if a band of steppe people left Asia, travelled in underground tunnels / geology, or crossed the Pacific or Arctic, and their speech helped shape the word we now write as “Mexico” as well as the Nahuatl language?

Most historians say “no,” but here we look only at language. No bones, no pottery, just the sounds and how they could drift across centuries. I think that is what is most compelling about the sounds of the two languages as seen in the videos above.

2. Two words that look alike only on paper

Where Old spelling How it sounded then What it meant
Central Mexico, about 1300 CE Mēxihco meh-SHEE-ko “the place of the god Mēxi,” capital of the future Aztecs
Mongolia, at least 700 CE möngke MONG-keh (ng like in “sing”) “everlasting, eternal,” an honor title added to words like “heaven” or “sun”

Notice that the Nahuatl word had sh in the middle, while the Mongolian word had ngk. They do not match yet, but languages bend sounds over time, especially when two tongues live side by side.

3. How sounds can slide

Think of the English word cupboard. We now say it CUB-erd, dropping the p. Similar shortcuts happen everywhere.

A possible sound road from möngke to meh-SHEE:

  1. ngk > nk > nh > n or ngk > nsh
    Hard clusters often soften. The back-of-throat k can fade to an h or change place, then the hiss can sharpen to sh.
  2. ö > e
    Many languages lack the German-style ö sound. Speakers replace it with the closest plain e.

Step by step: m ö ng ke → m e n k e → m e n h e → m e sh e.

Small shifts, each found in real sound charts, stack up across many generations.

4. Adding the place ending

Classical Nahuatl marks location with -co. Examples:

  • Chalco “at the lake Chal”
  • Tlaxco “at the place of tortilla-corn”

So when newcomers’ sacred word meʃe (written Meshe here) landed in a Nahuatl-speaking valley, local people could tag on -co:

Meshe + -co = Mesheco → pronounced meh-SHEE-ko.

Spanish friars later wrote the sh with the letter x, and European printers read x like the Greek xi (ks). On a map it became Meksiko, then Mexico. The printed ks is a European illusion, not an Aztec one.

5. Desert sun, eternal sun

The valley of Mexico is high, sunny, and at times very dry. A migrant group that prized the idea of an “everlasting sun” could see that land as holy ground, fit for their sky deity. The old Mongolian root möngke already wrapped the same idea - eternity - around sky and sun.

Over centuries, people can forget the original story yet keep the badge. In modern English we still call pennies “coppers,” though few carry real copper today. Names outlive memories.

6. How to look for firmer clues

If you want to test the idea further, here are plain tasks anyone can follow or cheer on:

  • Hunt Aztec prayers for rare roots spelled meʃi, mehi, or similar. A foreign seed often shows up in ritual words first.
  • Map Buryat and Evenki clan names around Lake Baikal, such as Meksiid. Clan lore might hold fragments of an old “eternal-sun” tag.
  • Compare suffix habits. Does any other Mongolic or Tungusic tongue ever glue a place ending that sounds like -ko? If yes, the bridge gains strength.

Each small win raises odds that the Mexican and Mongolian words share a bloodline, not just a tourist resemblance.

7. Why this matters

Looking past textbook borders can spark fresh questions:

  • Did Pacific (subterranean or seafaring trips) shuffle culture more than we think?
  • Can a single religious / cultural words leave a trail longer than empires?
  • Where else might shared sounds hide?

Whether the link stands or falls, chasing it sharpens our tools for hearing history inside everyday names and, of course, expanding our minds and connections to everyone throughout the world...

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Soretna,

There was a time when we were searching for the city or region of Mexico/Meksico in Mongolia. I had seen the name on a map before, you too, but we couldn't find it anymore.

You know, I have just realized that 1/3 of what was Mongolia now lies within the border of China.

What to do?

Cheers!

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I have done some digging in this vector... I have not found a clear answer yet. It seems there are some similarly sounding potentials, but they all are not of any significant ancient dates... supposedly. I will dig up some more and let you know about this. AI is making things quite interesting when you constrain the parameters outside of mainstream thinking...

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@Soretna , the ancient Central Asia to Americas journey is now well established by Anthropologists .

Regards

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In some aspects, but in others - such as that discussed in this thread - seems to still be unexplored / rejected to some degree...