two more on Huastecan Nahuatl

idiez at mac.com idiez at mac.com
Tue Jun 24 20:16:39 UTC 2003


MIchael,
	1. ni-mitz-i-li-a: "li" is the strong syllable.
	2.  There is an aspiration on the end of "chocaseh". The people I work
with
don't do any glottal stops. They are all aspirations, both word
internally and in the
word final position. Although I guess you could sort them by the amount
of friction
which is heard. The word final aspiration is barely audible. Between
two vowels
("ehecatl", "air" and "noha", "still/todavía") it sounds pretty much
like an English "h".
Preceding a consonant, its like a Mexican "j" (not as strong as in
Spain).
	Could you explain what is meant by "analogical formation"?
John

On Tuesday, June 24, 2003, at 08:15  AM, Michael Mccafferty wrote:

> John,
>
> In "nimitzilia" ~ "nimitzihlia" which syllable is the strong one?
>
> Or, put another way, how are these pronounced?
>
> [ni-mitz-i-lya] where [-i-] is the strong syllable, or
>
> [ni-mitz-i-li-a] where [-li-] is the strong syllable?
>
>
>
> As for the future plural question, this is really interesting.
>
> fut. sing. [cokas]
> fut. pl.   [cokaseh]  (or is that [cokase?], where [?] = glottal stop?)
> cond.      [cokaskiya] ~ [cokaskia]
>
> It looks like future plural is form analogically on future singular,
> but I
> don't know.
>
> Michael
>
>
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 idiez at mac.com wrote:
>
>> There are two further characteristics of Huastecan Nahuatl that puzzle
>> me:
>> 1. The plural of the future tense has no /k/, while the
>> conditional/unfulfilled
>> action construction does. Here's an example:
>> future singular: "chocaz"
>> future plural: "chocaceh"
>> conditional/ unfulfilled action: "chocazquia"
>> 2. Instead of "nimitzilhuia", "I tell  you", we have "nimitzilia" with
>> the apparent
>> loss of the /w/ (And it's the same in all tenses). At least one of my
>> native
>> speaking friends, pronounces a very slight aspiration before the "l".
>> Something
>> like "nimitzihlia". I understand that this is metathesis: a reverse
>> case of what
>> Lockhart comments on as the origin of the "-lhuia" applicative suffix
>> for Class 3
>> verbs.
>> 	Would anyone like to comment on what's going on in these two cases?
>>
>> John Sullivan, Ph.D.
>> Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
>> Francisco García Salinas 604
>> Colonia CNOP
>> Zacatecas, Zac. 98053
>> México
>> +52 (492) 768-6048
>> idiez at mac.com
>> www.idiez.org.mx
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Michael McCafferty
> Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
> Indiana University
> Bloomington, Indiana
> 47401
> mmccaffe at indiana.edu
>
> "...as a dog howls at the moon, I talk."
>
> -Rumi
>
>



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