Mexican Linguistic Swifties

The Tom Swift series of adventure novels were produced by the same outfit that did the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. Noticing that the young scientist hero of the series rarely just said anything, preferring to say it adverbially, someone got the bright idea of inventing Tom Swifties: punningly-contrived sentences in which the adverbial element (the way “Tom” says something) corresponds entertainingly to what he says. For instance:

• “I used the vacuum cleaner to clear the drain,” Tom said succinctly.
• “I didn’t know I got airsick,” said Tom, heaving it aloft.
• “Of course I can climb that cliff,” Tom bluffed.
• “I think it makes it spin faster,” said Tom, blowing his top.
• “I might as well be dead,” Tom croaked.
• “They had to amputate them both at the ankles,” Tom said defeatedly.

(The second and fourth examples, fwtw, are to be blamed on Bill “Uncle Precious” Sischo.)

As the examples show, there are several variants of the Tom Swiftie (or Tom Swifty), in which an adverb (succinctly, defeatedly), a verb denoting a manner of speech (bluffed, croaked), or an adverbial phrase (heaving it aloft, blowing his top), bears the punnishment. In another variant, it is the language of speech. E.g.:

• “I’m really in a hurry,” said Tom in Russian.
• “That’s all for now,” said Tom in Finnish.
• “Look at that centipede genuflect!” said Tom in Polynesian.

Thom Smith-Stark got me going with Swifties of this type for the Mexican languages. At least the Amuzgo example was one of his: I don’t remember which if any of the rest are. Some of them will not make much sense unless you bear in mind that these names are pronounced as in Spanish rather than sounded as they look in English. In a couple of them the pun actually involves Spanish words rather than just English.

See if you can match them up! (Drag from the right and drop on the left)