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Latest comment: 8 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
The etymology of 'Papaloapan' as given as composed of 'papalotl' and '-apan' for river. This does not seem to be supported.
The Spanish-language page for papaloapan claims the '-apan' mean "lugar de", e.g. "place of".
The reference https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:Nahuatl claims that -pan means "on, on top of" or "at", so that Papaloapan could mean "at the butterflies" or, possibly very loosely, "at the place of the butterflies" as in the Spanish-language page.
Unless someone can find a reference for "-apan" meaning river, I suggest changing the explanation. -- Ben (talk) 04:38, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply