is it zin or tzin??

micc at home.com micc at home.com
Wed Feb 9 02:18:01 UTC 2000


I think that David was not referring to the actual ending of "ito"
coming from Nahuatl "tzin".  I think he meant the concept of
exquisiteness as a Mexican language trait,

Michael Mccafferty wrote:
> 
> The two rather seem to be independent creations. Spanish -ito/a seems to
> have a cognate form in French -et (m.) and -ette (f.) in French.
> Just an idea.
> 
> Michael
> 
> On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, David L. Frye wrote:
> 
> > > it would be interesting to see if the Tlaxcalteca honorific methodology
> > > of speaking to their elders has been transmitted to the modern Mexican
> > > Spanish spoken in the area.
> >
> > I have often thought that the ubiquitous use of "-ito" in Mexican Spanish
> > might be related to Nahuatl "-tzin" -- especially in cases where the
> > diminutive is rarely heard elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world, such
> > as "nuestros difuntitos" or "mis muertitos" to refer to one's family dead.
> > Any thoughts?
> >
> >




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