Um, how many object prefix slots, again?

[John Sullivan, Ph.D.]

Doug,
	Actually, in Classical Nahuatl there are four object prefix slots:  
specific, reflexive, non-specific human, and non-specific non-human.  
Normally, only one specific object can be represented by a prefix,  
even if there are multiple specific objects in a sentence. The  
exception to this is when one of the multiple specific objects is  
third person plural. In this case, two specific object prefixes can  
appear in the verb. The third person one, which would appear by  
itself as "quim", appears in this case as "im". This is what you are  
seeing in your example, "xinechintlacualtili in nochcahuan", "Feed my  
sheep for me". The verb is "tlacualtia, nic," and it can be broken  
down as "tlacual(li)", "food", + "-tia", "to provide s.t. to s.o" =  
"to feed s.o." or in this case the sheep. This verb, "tlacualtia" is  
then given an applicative suffix, which adds an object, giving,  
"tlacualtilia, nic," "to feed s.o. for s.o.". You now have two  
specific objects, the sheep and me. Normally, in this case only "me",  
being the most animate of the two objects, would appear as a prefix,  
but since the other specific object is third person plural it appears  
as the "in".
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
Tacuba 152, int. 47
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
México
Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415
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idiez at mac.com
www.idiez.org.mx



On Dec 15, 2006, at 1:38 AM, Doug Barr wrote:

> OK, so I'm struggling with verbs, and I read in the archives that the
> verb only has two object prefix slots, but I've only seen one used up
> to now. Then I read in *Rules of the Aztec Language* and on a website
> (http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nahugram.html#sec5) that
> there is another prefix -im- that can be used for third person plural
> (animate) objects if necessary. Okay, that's the second slot. Got it.
>
> Then I look more closely at the example given in the book,
> "Xine:chintlacualtili in nochcahua:n," "Feed my sheep for me." I
> parse that as "xi-ne:ch-in-TLA-cua-lti-li," "you.imperative-(for).me-
> them-something-eat-[causative]-[applicative]," and am very confused
> by the presence of "-tla-" in the verb - not so much what it's doing
> (providing a non-specific object for "cua") as that it seems to be
> occupying a third object prefix slot. Since "cua" occurs without
> "tla-" I'm guessing that it isn't an intrinsic part of the verb like
> the first syllable of "tlazohtla" - so what gives?
>
> Tlazohcamati again,
> Doug
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> Nahuatl mailing list
> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
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