Greetings

[Jonathan Amith]

to Te:maxtike:tl a:man i:tech tlatla:katilistli

I often had my class ask me this too.

The basic greetings in the Balsas River Valley

tlane:xtilih or ne:xtilih (depending on village) 'Good morning' (from
dawn to about 8 am)

pano:ltih or no:ltih 'Good morning' (from about 8-9 to noon); in Oapan
some elder people will use a:tih (I don't know where this comes from)
often followed by an address term (ma:noh for men, pi:pih for women)

tio:tlakih or (rev.) tio:tlakiltih 'Good afternoon' (from noon to
vespers)

tlapoya:wilih or poya:wilih 'Good evening' (from vespers on, but not
when one is going to sleep).

These are standard greets often when one enters a house (the entering
person speaks). The plurals add -keh. In Ameyaltepec, Xalitla, and San
Marcos Oacacingo the final -h of the singular is lost when followed
by -keh; (e.g., tlane:xtilikeh). Other villages retain /h/. In Oapan
it is lost but leads to a new prosody tlanE:xtilIkeh (the caps
represent high pitch).

But, when greeting to enter a house one says:
nimocha:n (Oapan)
namoch:an (Ameyaltepec)
memocha:n (San Francisco Ozomatlan), etc.

Your (pl) house.

Basically 'Anyone home?' The answer is either nothing (if no one is
home or the visitor is going to ask for a bride!, well sometimes) or

xmose:wi (rest) or xmose:wi:ki (come rest), xkalaki (enter) etc.

When taking leave, some form of
ye tiaweh (ye tiawih) 'we are going'
towiA:n (let's go! pl. inclusive)
ma tiA:n (let's go! usually exclusive)

When going to bed:
ma nikochiti or ma tikochitih 'Let's go (directional) to bed!'

One can say timotah (several villages, Ameyaltepec timotan) 'be seeing
ya') or, in Oapan totaseh/totaskeh (fut of same). The to- is an
apocopated form of timo- > tito-

For telephone conversations: "Bueno?" from Spanish or Tli:no:n 'What?"

However, in general greetings are obvious statements of what the
person is doing! They are acknowledgments not greetings in the sense
we use it. Thus when passing someone in the street a greeting will
depend on the speakers knowledge of village geography, etc. So, if one
passes someone who is going away from their house: Tiaw te:cha:n? 'Are
you going visiting? To which the reply, "Ke:mah!" or Ke:mah, niaw
te:cha:n. Greetings can thus display quite a bit of knowledge, e.g.,
tontlakowas? "Are you going to the store?" or "O:titlakowato?" Are you
coming from the store?" etc. (well lit. Are you going buying? Other
greatings: titlachpa:ntok? to which the response is 'ke:mah
nitlachpa:ntok"  Or, very common in Oapan timose:witikah (or
timose:witok) and nimose:witokeh (are you sg/pl hanging out?). Oapan
has -tikah and -tok for durative singular, tokeh (and rarely tikateh)
for plural).

If greeting most kin or fictional kin, address titles (not names) are
almost always added. The rules for extending these terms vary. Ka:n
tiaw na:nah (or ka:no:n tiaw na:nah)? "Where are you going aunt?; Tiaw
te:cha:n koma:letsi:n Are you going visiting comadre?

But the general rule, just tell someone what they are doing and
they'll say, Yes, I'm doing X.

Someone just walked in the door and said "Titlahkwilohtok?"
Ke:mah, nitlahkwilohtok. Yo:nisiaw. Ma nia, ye kwahli.
Jonathan













Jonathan D. Amith
Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Gettysburg College
300 N. Washington St.
Campus Box 412
Gettysburg, PA  17325
Tel. 717/338-1255