"Chicano" is believed by some scholars to be a Spanish language derivative of an older Nahuatl word Mexitli ("Meh-shee-tlee"). Mexitli formed part of the expression "Huitzilopochtlil Mexitli"—a reference to the historic migration of the Mexica people from their homeland of Aztlán to the Oaxaca Valley. Mexitli is the linguistic progenitor or root of the word "Mexica," referring to the Mexica people, and its singular form "Mexihcatl" (). The "x" in Mexihcatl represents an /ʃ/ or "sh" sound in both Nahuatl and early modern Spanish, while the glottal stop in the middle of the Nahuatl word disappeared.