One of my Japanese students and her friends went to Franklin, TN (a very up-scale area near Nashville) and went into a chocolate shop where they were selling the above chocolates. She asked me how to pronounce it and I drew a blank! I told her I would research it. ( translation: ask someone on SlowTrav!) She picked up a brochure and it talked about them being Aztec or something close.

Incidentally, the chocolates were $4.50 for ONE piece. I wonder what they have inside the chocolate besides chocolate

My zero knowledge of Aztec makes me think that you pronounce it Xoh coh noh choh being the X the same sound as the German Ch or Spanish J... Same as writing México and pronouncing Méjico that is what Mexicans do (I find it absolutely legitimate, just wanted to clarify it through "orthodox" Spanish pronunciation )

like anything with an indian background is controversial in latin american/Spanish relations.
In castilian it is Xoconocho as pronounce using the X like an S
soconocho.
The Mexicans use the X like a J sound when followed by a vowel like A E I O U. In this case it is the O so they would say Joconocho.

But, the famed Xochimilco garden canals are pronounced using your Castilian example, Pedmar, right? So, I think that would be the case here.."soconocho".... both being of Aztec origin.

like i say its a tossed up; I am spanish but have relatives -cousins- married to mexicans and have visit them in their country so the way they pronounce Xochimilco is the same way as Xoconocho;using the X as a J. In fact the country is Méjico in castilian but they insisted on their aztec/indian heritage and call it Mexico.and it stay.

The J for an X is a sound that is very strange for an American English speaker. Are you saying that it is more like "hu"? And is the "cho" like "choke" or like "coke"?

Earline,
now to make the sound in writing is difficult for me .
but it should be like: ho coe no shoh.mexicans
and castilian is so coe no shoh

This is not a Spanish word and is not pronounced with any New or Old World Spanish pronunciation. It is an indigenous word from one of the current 62 indigenous languages in Mexico. I belive it is Nahatal, which is spoken by 2.5 million people in central Mexico, but it could also be Zapotc or Huichol. There is no Aztec langauge; that group of people spoke several languages, but mainly Nahatal. And yes, the X is pronounced just liked CH in English or how we pronounce X in Chinese. You pronounce the word just like it looks, phonetically. My husband and I are cultural anthropologists, and he is specialist in Mexican culture, so I had to jump in here.
Oh, and maybe the chocolate was from Oaxaca, Mexico? They are very famous for their chocolate that is from right there, so maybe that is why it was so expensive?

I just found out more; I was right..it is a Nahatal word, just as is "cacao" bean. One of the provinces of the Aztec Empire was the Xoconochco area, between Oaxaca and Gautamala....and that is where all the rich cocoa plant grew ,and still grow. The cocoa was ground into unsweetened chocolate and eaten by the royalty of the Aztec. Montezuma and the Spaniards added sugar or honey and loved it. So what you bought in Franklin, Tn.. I think that shop is also called XOCONOCHOCO...was from really great chocolate imported from that part of southern Mexico. Hence the price tag. So the word is Nahatal and you pronounce it "Sho-con-osh-co". Hope that helps.

I just wanted to jump in and say I don't speak Spanish at all, and so I have very little reason to visit this forum, but after reading through this thread, I really need to try some of that chocolate!

well see what some indian word in latin america can do;even English speakers jump in.

El chocolate si descubierto por los Españoles en Mexico y fue una de sus intercambios con el imperio Azteca. Que como dicho lo formaban varias comunidades de distintos grupos indios.

yes, of course there were many indigenous groups that were incorporated into the Aztec Empire and there were several languages spoken; the Aztecs themselves were a relatively small population.However, as the ruling & royal class, their language often dominiated. In any case, "xoconochco" is a Nahatal word, just as are many surving words in modern "Mexico".( And the "X" has the similar use in both words...to symbolize an indigenous sound that Spanish speakers didnt have in their alphabet, just to be more academic!) Hope this helps everyone. Just eat the chocolate...it's great!

Pearl - o sea Perla -
Thank you for your expertise! This has turned out to be so much more than a pronunciation question...I love this world!

chachalaca- thanks! I was wondering if my answer was getting too off the point or too academic, glad it was ok. We work in Mexico and it is yummy chocolate, that's for sure!

Wow! I love the answers. I just got back on this forum after more than a week. I found all the historical background extremely interesting. Next week I will be able to have a definitive answer on pronunciation for my student.

As for the chocolate -- I am allergic to it! so I will never be able to taste it. But I am sure that it is the really good stuff. I'm going to Franklin in a couple of weeks, so I might just go in there and buy a piece or two for my husband. Since I can't eat it, I have to rely upon a true chocolate kiss after hubby eats it. Yum.

Earline, glad I could help you and your Japanese friend! If you look on a map, the chocolate is grown in the isthmus between Mex and Guatamala, but it is sent up to the Oaxaca Vally to be processed. Everyone thinks it is grown in Oaxaca, and it is often called Oaxacan Chocolate, but it is all imported from a bit further south. Little tidbit of truth. It is very good, sorry you are allergic.

More trivia....the only time the word "chocolate" is used by in Nauhautal writings is to descrive a chocolate drink seller.. a "chocolanamacac". My colleagues and I did all the food research for the PBS show "Mexico: 1 Plate at a Time" by the famous Chicago chef Rick Bayless, but I did not do the chocolate segment, so this is the extent of my chocolate knowledge. I can tell you that the accurate name of the people of the central Mexico area are called NAHUAS. That is the name they called themselves and what is used today by most everyone. "Aztec" is not the correct term; they were only a small group but they get a lot of notoriaty because they had human sacrifices. It is seen now as a pejorative and uneducated term, ( not you, but the shopkeeper where you got the $$ chocolate). So if you ever return to that shop and want to be cool, you can say that the anthropologically-correct name for these 2.5 million people is NAHUAS (not Aztec) and the language is NAHUATAL. You can cite CIESAS, which is the Mexican Natl Anthropology Instit. and a book called THE NAHUAS AFTER THE CONQUEST by J. Lockhart. Whew, that's a boatload of trivia for some chocolate, no?? It was fun to write up all this trivia, hope it gives you some more good info!

in Latin America we tend to generalise much to the dismay of the Indians. We call Aztecs everything in Mexico; than Mayas,and then Incas. They form the big groups. Unless of course you come like Pearl597 who studies these folks professionally.
i was just on an exhibit by the Incas of Peru, really there were many other indians groups there but everyone outside refer them as Incas.

Pedmar, I don't want to get off-topic here Moderator. I do agree with most of what you say...But I respectfully disagree with you too. While most Mexicans and Latin Americans do not differenciate between the various small ethnic groups, we both agree on that, in Mexico people know the difference between the groups: they know the Maya, the Huichal, the Zapotec, the Mixtec mainly because they still dress/ do their hair in their customary ways and it's easy to tell them apart. People know that the Maya and Zapotec live in the south,and that there were Atzecs in central area, Yaquis in the north. It is very interesting to observe how Mexico teaches great history about its indigenous peoples, and prides itself on them, but also treats them as 2nd class citizens. My husband was raised in Mexico City and Oaxaca, Mexico and southern Chile, and we have a had a home in Oaxaca for 35 yrs where our children were born. I find that most Mexicans do understand the difference between the indigenous ethnic groups, but some they sometimes group them together for convenince of language, but most common, uneducated people that we know understand that not all Mexicans are Aztecs or Maya.However, they probably won't know the NAMES of the groups. I can't speak for other Latin American countries because I have not lived in them. Maybe you can address that, Pedmar, since it sounds like you live in Latin America but not Mexico? I hope this is not too off topic for this tread, Moderator?

Pearl597 i have not lived but visit like a second home for many years and have family inter marriage with Mexicans too. There i have been all over; I have 4 nationalities but none of Indian descend. Cuba,Spain, USA,and France.

what i was saying is in general folks there do not the diff and yes Indians are second class especially in Chiapas. I have never met a Mexican who told me he was Indian or Indian blood, and when they spoked of the pyramids ,for example, they refer them as Aztecs or Mayas. I do have friends who teaches of UNAM and they do can tell the diff but I was referring in general to the general population;there are always exceptions.

Pearl, although I'm no longer an active moderator, as far as I'm concerned, that's not off topic. Thanks for the education.

I have very little exposure to pronunciation practices of indigenous words - although it does quite interest me. My only association, prior to reading your explanation, was my high school Spanish teacher, who was an American married to a Mexican, pronouncing Xochimilco with an initial soft "s" sound. Thanks.

I was under impression that Aztec / Mayan "X" is a "Sh", e.g. Xela is promounced as Shela, which would make the item in question Shoconocho

Hm..... That's interesting, Valencia. But I've never heard "Shochimilco" for Xochimilco, have you? I've only heard that particular X transliterated as an "s".....

To be honest, that was just my 2 cents from experience. Guatemalan Mayas do pronounce X as Sh, that i heard on many occasions - but then a) i could have been in a certian dialect area, b) there might be a difference between Mayan and Aztec and c) what language is the word actually from and how can we be sure?

Then again, it is often the case that two versions of pronounciation exist, one native and one colonial, in this case - Mayan/Aztec and Spanish, and quite probably the two are used interchangeably