Translation/pronunciation

[r. joe campbell]

   In the modern dialects that I'm familiar with, 'quimichin' is used for
"mouse" and 'quimich-ilama(tl)' is used for "rat".  (ilamatl = old woman)
This is in villages where the folk-zoology classifies 'raton' "mouse" and
'rata' "rat" as the male and female of the same species.

   My recollection is that Molina didn't really give a word for "rat".  He
did have:

  atozan. cierto animalejo como rata.
  chachahuatl. liron, o cierto animal como rata.
  tozan. topo, animal o rata. [gopher]

  cuitlapilhueyac. raton.
  huezacotl. raton.
  quimichin. raton.
  quimichpil. ratoncillo.
  quimichton. ratoncillo.
  tetzauhquimichin. sorze, raton pequen~o.

Joe

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Geoff Davis wrote:

> > isn't quimichin a mouse????
>
> Yep. But its the closest I could find.  It could be my overall lack
> of experience, but, I was able to find several Nahuatl tutorials on
> the 'net that seem to indicate quimichin could also be translated
> as "rat".  If there is a better word, please do let me know.  I'm
> still very much the newbie.
>
> -Geoff
>
>
>