a regular problem with Molina

John Sullivan jsullivan at prodigy.net.mx
Thu Aug 24 16:18:25 UTC 2000


Compañeros,
    While correcting an article for a colleague, I came across a problem
with an entry in Molina. Specifically, the entry for "Reglar o regular cosa"
(p. 103recto in the Spanish section) gives us, "nauatile. nauatilpiani".
First of all, after consulting the Diccionario de Autoridades, I assume that
we are dealing with "regular" in the sense of "cloister and/or rules and
regulations". Second, the standard grammars indicate that the agentive forms
"-eh/-huah" and "-ni" refer to persons. Thus I assume that both "nauatile"
and "nauatilpiani" refer to persons of "religious orders" both before and
after the conquest. However, Molina's entry suggests that they may also
refer to "things". Any comments on this or any part of the preceding
analysis?
    John Sullivan
    Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas



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