tlan

Tlan is a term that primarily appears as a linguistic element in Nahuatl. It is most often seen as a locative suffix meaning "place" or "land," and it is used to form nouns that designate places or regions.

In Nahuatl, the suffix -tlan attaches to a root describing a geographic feature or resource, yielding a toponym that can be translated roughly as "the place of X" or "land of X." The best-known example is Tenochtitlán, where -tlán marks the location and the full name refers to the place associated with a particular feature, such as a cactus or other landmark in the traditional account.

Historically, -tlan has contributed to numerous Aztec and post-conquest toponyms across central Mexico and other Nahuatl-speaking areas. It functions as a productive means of naming places by indicating location or territory.

In modern usage, tlān appears almost exclusively as part of proper names rather than as a standalone word in everyday Nahuatl. When rendered in Spanish or English texts, it is commonly preserved as -tlan or -tlán, with diacritics indicating the long vowel in Nahuatl.

As a linguistic element, tlan is of interest to scholars studying Nahuatl morphology and Mesoamerican geography; it is not a concept with a separate, independent meaning in contemporary usage. Its significance lies primarily in historical and geographical naming practices rather than in modern everyday language.