Editing Teotihuacan (section)

==Etymology==
{{Location map | Greater Mexico City
| width = 200
| float = right
| alt = 
| label = Teotihuacan
| caption    = Location in [[Greater Mexico City]]
| position = left
| mark = Green pog.svg <!--green dot-->
| lat_deg = 19 | lat_min = 41 |lat_sec = 33 |lat_dir = N
| lon_deg = 98 | lon_min = 50 |lon_sec = 38 | lon_dir = W
}}

The name {{lang|nci|Teōtīhuacān}} was given by the [[Classical Nahuatl language|Nahuatl]]-speaking [[Aztec]]s centuries after the fall of the city around 550 CE. The term has been [[Gloss (transliteration)|glossed]] as "birthplace of the gods", or "place where gods were born",<ref>Archaeology of Native North America by Dean R. Snow.</ref> reflecting [[Nahua peoples|Nahua]] creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar [[Thelma D. Sullivan]] interprets the name as "place of those who have the road of the gods."<ref>Millon (1993), p. 34.</ref> This is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the universe at that site. The name is pronounced {{IPA|nah|te.oːtiːˈwakaːn|}} in [[Nahuatl]], with the [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] on the syllable {{lang|nci|wa}}. By normal Nahuatl orthographic conventions, a written accent mark would not appear in that position. Both this pronunciation and the Spanish pronunciation {{IPA|es|te.otiwaˈkan|}} are used;  in Spanish the stress falls on the second to last vowel, as long as the last letter in the word is a vowel, an n, or an s, so again an accent mark is not used.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://mangolanguages.com/resources/learn/grammar/spanish/when-do-spanish-words-require-accent-marks | title=When do Spanish words require accent marks? }}</ref>

The original name of the city is unknown, but it appears in [[Maya script|hieroglyphic texts]] from the Maya region as {{lang|myn|puh}}, or "Place of Reeds".<ref>Mathews and Schele (1997, p. 39)</ref> This suggests that, in the [[Maya civilization]] of the [[Mesoamerican chronology#Classic Era|Classic]] period, Teotihuacan was understood as a Place of Reeds similar to other [[Mesoamerican chronology#Postclassic Era|Postclassic]] Central Mexican settlements that took the name of {{lang|nci|[[Tollan]]}}, such as {{lang|nci|[[Tula (Mesoamerican site)|Tula-Hidalgo]]}} and {{lang|nci|[[Cholula (Mesoamerican site)|Cholula]]}}.

This naming convention led to much confusion in the early 20th century, as scholars debated whether ''Teotihuacan'' or ''Tula-Hidalgo'' was the ''Tollan'' described by 16th-century chronicles. It now seems clear that {{lang|nci|Tollan}} may be understood as a generic Nahua term applied to any large settlement. In the Mesoamerican concept of urbanism, {{lang|nci|Tollan}} and other language equivalents serve as a [[metaphor]], linking the bundles of reeds and rushes that formed part of the [[lake|lacustrine]] environment of the [[Valley of Mexico]] and the large gathering of people in a city.<ref>Miller and Taube (1993, p. 170)</ref>

As of January 23, 2018, the name ''Teotihuacan'' has come under scrutiny by experts, who now feel that the site's name may have been changed by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century. Archeologist Verónica Ortega of the [[Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia|National Institute of Anthropology and History]] states that the city appears to have actually been named ''Teohuacan'', meaning "City of the Sun" rather than "City of the Gods", as the current name suggests.<ref>{{cite news|date=January 23, 2018|title=Mexico's Teotihuacan ruins may have been ''Teohuacan''|work=National Post|url=https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/mexicos-teotihuacan-ruins-may-have-been-teohuacan|access-date=24 January 2018}}</ref>