Suywa

One of the names of the city of Tulán, often referred to as Tulán-Suywa (or Tulan-Zuyua). The name Suywa does not appear on its own in the K'iche' narrative, which some scholars trace to evidence of language contact in Mesoamerica. Anthropologist Dennis Tedlock (1996: 362) points to the Yukatek Maya term suyua t’an, meaning "‘twisted (or deceptive) speech,’" which "refers to riddles whose answers were demanded of pretenders to lordly positions.” Anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: 210n548) traces additional meanings. He writes: “Suy, in lowland Maya languages, is a ‘whirlpool,’ or something twisted. Suywa is ‘confusion,’ and suywa t’an is ‘figurative or rhetorical language.’ In the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, the ‘language of Suywa’ refers to a series of riddles and plays on words that only true lords were able to solve prove their legitimacy (Roys 1967: 88-98). In Nahua, Zuyua is ‘Bloody Water,’ a reading that is specifically recognized elsewhere in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Edmonson 1986: 172, lines 3580-3582). The Annals of the Cakchiquels agrees with the Popol Vuh in locating this area with the ‘Tulan in the East’ (Recinos and Goetz 1953: 53) In the Yucatec Maya Books of Chilam Balam, Zuyua is identified with Xicalanco, an ancient port city on the shores of the Laguna de Términos in the Mexican state of Tabasco (Recinos and Goetz 1953: 53, 216; Campbell 1970: 7; Carmack 1981: 46).” Given the meaning of Suywa and its linguistic record, it is possible that the name references the confusion of languages said to have occured there (Ximénez, folio 41r).