Caballeros aguila y caballeros tigre

[Frances Karttunen]

on 11/19/03 9:40 AM, Susana Moraleda-Dragotto at susana at DRAGOTTO.COM wrote:

Por favor alguien podria decirme como traducir "caballero aguila" y
"caballero tigre" al Nahuatl? He buscado en el diccionario de Molina, pero
no esta la palabra "caballero" y en los varios libros de historia
(incluyendo Duran, Sahagun y Davies), no encuentro mencion de estos terminos
en Nahuatl.
Seria eventualmente correcto decir "cuauhtecuhtli" y "ocelotecuhtli" a pesar
de que tecuhtli en realidad no quiera decir "caballero"?

Muchas gracias.

Susana

Nice to hear from you Susana!

Thanks to Joe's helpful concordance from the Florentine Codex, it seems
clear that eagle warriors and jaguar warriors were often referred to
metaphorically simply as eagles and jaguars.  Granted that the word ocelotl
refers in English to a much smaller feline than the jaguar, but in Nahuatl,
ocelotl is the big cat, and the smaller one is sometimes referenced with one
or another of the diminutive suffixes (-tzin, -ton, maybe even -pil).

One isn't likely to find "caballero" in a bilingual Spanish/Nahuatl
dictionary, considering the literal meaning of caballero. Mesoamerican
fighters were of necessity foot warriors. Yaotl, 'enemy,' is often to be
found in descriptions of battle. Teuctli refers only to lords.

Frances



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