Lago or laguna?

juliedor, Somewhat of a guess here, since it seems to be somewhat inconsistent. It's kind of like the difference between lake and pond in English. In general a lake is larger and definitely deeper than a pond. However, a very large pond will visually appear nearly identical with a small lake. The difference primarily being the depth. Very, very subjective in both English and Spanish.

Edited by: mazgringo

I recently was at a body of water called "Lost Lake". I think I could have thrown a baseball across it from any point on the edge, and I don't have one of the world's great arms. And I've seen ponds in New England that I would definitely have called lakes.

Vinny, is Walden an example? I know it as Lake Walden, which might be a local term (I grew up nearby.) Most sources I've seen call it Walden Pond.

I wasn't thinking of Walden Pond (which is the name I knew) but that would be an example, yes. The fact that some locals call it Lake Walden just illustrates that these terms are fluid. So to speak.

I never heard of Walden Pond until college and I thought everyone had lost their mind. But many have, at least ones who think Concord should be pronounced like Concorde.

Hola!

I cannot talk of Mexican, but in continental Spanish:
a "lago" is an island depression (a hole in the ground) filled with fresh water, usually from a river.
a "laguna" is a an inland or coastal flat area where the freatic (underground) fresh or brackish water layer reaches the surface.
Therefore "lagos" are usually in mountanous area and are usually bigger and always deeper, "lagunas" are in flat areas or at the coast, usually smaller and always quite shallow.
The problem is Spanish conquerors, most of them illiterate, started to baptize in a very quick and chaotic way all the places, plants, animals and people they saw. For example, they called the first piece of continental America "Yucatan" because that is what (they thought) they heard from the first person they asked (in Spanish) the name of thew place, which in local nauatl language actually means: "I don´t understand you". There are enough cases to write a book.
So I am afraid the name origin is completely aleatory. I know of a body of water in southern Ecuador known as Lagunas del Cajas, wich are clearly a group of "ibones" or mountain lakes from glaciar origin, so techniclly they should be "Lagos del Cajas" I know the original Laguna de Tenochtitlan in current Mexico city was an actual lagoon, same with the "Cenotes" in Yucatan, but I don´t know about Chiapas. If they are deep and in a valley or a deppression then they should be lakes.or "lagos"

"Yucatan" because that is what (they thought) they heard from the first person they asked (in Spanish) the name of thew place, which in local nauatl language actually means: "I don´t understand you".

Hopefully not being too anal here Txemi but the local language in Yucatan would be Mayan, not Nahuatl (I dunno if the rest of the story is true though, but it's nice.)

Wikipedia says

There is a popular myth that the name Yucatán comes from the Yucatec Maya phrase for "listen how they speak," or "I don't understand your words" — supposedly said by contact period Maya, when the first Spanish explorers asked, what the area was called. The proper derivation of the word Yucatán is widely debated. However, it is also claimed that the actual source of the name "Yucatan" is the Nahuatl (Aztec) word Yokatlān, "place of richness."

You are right, palindroma, my fault. I meant Mayan , nauatl was spoken by the Aztecs, not the Mayan.