Huitlacoche or Cuitlacoche

[r. joe campbell]

On Sat, 14 Oct 2000, alexis wimmer wrote:
>
> it is an other bird whoose name could perhaps be related to cuitla-coch-in
>  ?) : cocho or coch-o :tl, the white-fronted parrot Amazona abifrons.
>
> Alexis.
>
>


Alexis,
   In order for a morphological identity to be credible, of course, we
need a traceable form relationship.  But if we don't have a semantic path
too, we're in the same situation as with the well-known "-ling" in
English.  Nobody is willing to argue for a proportional relationship here:

   boy : boyling  ::  prince : princeling

   Of course, sometimes the semantic paths are not obvious -- we are not
in the position to see things from inside the mind of the Nahuatl speaker
-- and that includes his knowledge of the culture and the world.  So when
the path is not obvious, someone needs to be our pathfinder -- supply an
interpretation.  One not very good example is:

   ni-cualani       I get angry

   nic-cuacualatza  I boil it (totally unrelated to boyling example above)

Everyone agrees that 'cuacualatza' is an example of a set of regularly
derived reduplicated transitive verbs from intransitive ones ending in -ni
(usually).  But is the semantic interpretation credible?  "I
continually/repeatedly make it angry" = "I boil it"?  In this case, we
don't have to stretch our imagination at all -- boiling water does seem
angry (and we know that the opposite extension of meaning is used in the
case of 'pozoni' "it boils" and 'ni-yollo-popozoca' "I get angry [I
heart-boil]").

   How do we relate the parrot and the smut?   }8-)

Best regards,

Joe


cocho**

1. *cocho*:.
      white-fronted parrot (b.11 f.3 p.23).

2. quinenehuili in toznene, ihuan in *cocho*:.
      it resembles the young yellow-headed parrot and the white-fronted
     parrot. (b.11 f.3 p.23).

cochoihhuitl**

3. ihuan in quilhuia quetzaliacatl, in zan tepitoton, in chilchotic,
     ihuan in tzinitzcan, in teoquechol: in axcan mitoa tlauhquechol,
     ihuan in xiuhtototl, in ayopal, in toztli, in tozcuicuil,
     in zacuan, in *cochoihhuitl*, in chamolin, in cuitlatexotli,
     in cozohtli, in xiuhapalli. etc..
      and those they called down feathers, the very small ones,
     the chili-green ones and the crest feathers of the quetzal;
     and feathers of the red spoonbill [teoquechol], which is
     now called tlauhquechol; and the blue cotinga, the amethyst-colored
     ones, the yellow parrot, the multicolored parrot, the trupial,
     the red and yellow parrot, the scarlet parrot, the blue
     parrot, the dove; and aquamarine feathers, etc. (b.4 f.5
     p.46).

4. ahzo coztlapalli in motzauchuatza, anozo aztatl, anozo chamolin,
     anozo cuitlatexotli, anozo *cochoihhuitl*, anozo itla ihhuitl
     zan tlapalli, tlatlapalpalli:.
      perhaps yellow dyed ones were glue-hardened, or heron,
     or scarlet ones, or blue parrot, or green parrot feathers,
     or some feathers dyed in one color, dyed in many. (b.9
     f.7 p.94).

5. auh in tzinitzcan, yehuatl quimopepechtia in *cochoihhuitl*:.
      and for trogonorus, they used green parrot feathers as
     a basis. (b.9 f.7 p.94).

cochome**

6. totocalli, calpixque oncan quinpiaya, in ixquich nepapan
     tototl: cuacuauhti, tlauhquechol, zacuan, tozneneme, *cochome*,
     alome, coxoliti:.
      totocalli: there majordomos kept all the various birds---eagles,
     red spoonbills, trupials, yellow parrots, parakeets, large
     parrots, pheasants. (b.8 f.3 p.45).

cochotl**

7. ihuan ompa nemi, in cualli ihhuitl, in tlazotli, in zacuan,
     in tlauhquechol, in teoquechol, in xiuhtototl, in *cochotl*,
     in quilito: no ompa nemi in quetzaltototl:.
      and there were the beautiful feathers, the precious feathers,
     [the feathers of] the troupial, the red spoonbill, the
     blue cotinga, the white-fronted parrot, the mexican parrotlets;
     the resplendent trogonorus was also there. (b.10 f.12 p.187).

tencochotic**

8. tencoztic, tencoltic, *tencochotic*, cuachichiquiltic,.
      it has a yellow, curved bill, like that of the white-fronted
     parrot; the head is crested. (b.11 f.3 p.22).