This paper identifies some linguistic properties of technical terminology, and uses them to formulate an algorithm for identifying technical terms in running text. The grammatical properties discussed are preferred phrase structures: technical terms consist mostly of noun phrases containing adjectives, nouns, and occasionally prepositions; rerely do terms contain verbs, adverbs, or conjunctions. The discourse properties are patterns of repetition that distinguish noun phrases that are technical terms, especially those multi-word phrases that constitute a substantial majority of all technical vocabulary, from other types of noun phrase.The paper presents a terminology indentification algorithm that is motivated by these linguistic properties. An implementation of the algorithm is described; it recovers a high proportion of the technical terms in a text, and a high proportaion of the recovered strings are vaild technical terms. The algorithm proves to be effective regardless of the domain of the text to which it is applied.

The word *kakaw(a) (‘cacao’, Theobroma cacao) was widely diffused among Mesoamerican languages, and from there to much of lower Central America. This study provides evidence establishing beyond reasonable doubt that this word originated in the Mije-Sokean family; that it spread from the Mije-Sokean languages in or around the Olmec heartland into southeastern Mesoamerican languages; that its diffusion into Mayan languages took place between about 200 B.C. and A.D. 400; and that it spread from a Mije-Sokean language in or near the Basin of Mexico into languages in the region. It shows that each of the arguments presented by Dakin and Wichmann (2000) against a Mije-Sokean origin is either unworkable, is based upon false premises, or is not relevant; and that their proposed alternative — that it originated in and spread from Nawa into other Mesoamerican languages — conflicts with the mass of evidence relevant to the issue.This study also discusses the linguistic details of vocabulary for drinks made from cacao; shows that no proposed etymology for the word chocolate is correct, but agrees with Dakin and Wichmann that its proximate source is a Nawa form chikola:tl; and discusses the history of words for Theobroma bicolor (‘Nicaragua chocolate tree; pataxte’) and their use.The linguistic data are pertinent to issues of intergroup interaction in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, but do not shed light on the nature or the cultural context of the diffusion of cacao in Mesoamerica, nor on its uses.

The decipherment of part of the epi-Olmec script of ancient Mexico, which yields the earliest currently readable texts in Mesoamerica, has been achieved over the last 2 years. This was made possible by the discovery of a stela with a long inscription at La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1986. This decipherment is based on both a reconstruction of the early stages of languages spoken in the region and semantic clues provided by comparison with cultural practices and other script traditions of early southern Mesoamerica. Summarized here is the current state of the phonetic decipherment, the methods used for the decipherment, and results concerning the epi-Olmec language and script. The language identified in the inscriptions is pre-proto-Zoquean, the ancestor of four languages now spoken in the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Oaxaca. The decipherment contributes to knowledge of early Mixe-Zoquean language history. The script is more closely related to Mayan hieroglyphic writing than to other early Mesoamerican scripts, and this relation is closer than previously recognized.

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This article presents some of the authors' perspectives on the past 20 years of work that applies the results of research in historical linguistics to the understanding of the histories and cultural practices of pre-Columbian Mesoamericans. It focuses on major cultural transformations to which both historical linguistic and archaeological data can contribute, such as the spread of agriculture, and migrations in Mesoamerican prehistory. It also addresses major culture-historical studies on narrower topics: on Nawa and its place in the prehistory of Mexico, in particular confirming standard views that Nawas were immigrants into Mesoamerica; on Archaic and Formative period interactions involving Oto-Mangeans, which is work that is largely still to be done; on the prospects for work on long-distance contacts between Mesoamerica and North America; on the contributions of historical linguistics in Mesoamerican epigraphy; and on the value and prospects of updating the methodology of glottochronology.