Cuaxochtli

[Frances Karttunen]

> There is a tremendous amount of variation in the items that you note 
> above.
> The ones with "c" and "ch" are certainly curious.
>


And suggest that the  "cua" of "cuaxochtli" may stand for a syllable 
closed by a consonant, which would most likely be the "saltillo" which 
is in some regional dialects pronounced as [h], in others as glottal 
stop, and in yet others as a gemination of whatever the following 
consonant is.  It is not entirely unknown for the saltillo to appear in 
colonial-peiod texts as "c" which has led Lockhart to posit 
historically underlying [k] for saltillo in at least some contexts. A 
partial assimilation of cuacxochtli could yield cuachxochtli. Full 
assimilation of chx to geminate -xx- is attested.

There is a lot of colonial-period, probably regional, variation among 
xochitl and xochtli for 'flower.'  Xochitli is problematical, because 
that implies xochi+saltillo preceding the -tli form of the absolutive 
suffix.  There IS xochih- in xochihcualli 'fruit' (nowadays 
specifically 'banana').

For what it is worth, there are almost certainly unrelated homophones 
xochiyotl 'essence of flowers' and 'fat, suet.'  The first is derived 
from xochi-tl by the obvious process of adding -yo-tl.  The other is 
probably related to chiyan-tli 'oilseed' in a very non-obvious way.

If one looks into the Spanish-to-Nahuatl side of Molina's dictionary, 
for 'linde entre heredades' one finds: quaxochtli, tepantli, 
miltepantli, tlaltzontli. Tepantli and miltepantli are transparent: 
'stone fence' and 'cultivated-field stone fence.'  Tlaltzontli appears 
to be literally 'land head-of-hair.'  I assume this to be a metaphor 
for a line of uprights outlining a piece of land.  If you look down 
from high ground on chinampas, you get this effect.  A chinamitl is 
created by enclosing a piece of wet land with very long poles driven 
down into the mucky bottom.  Then mud is heaped up repeatedly inside 
the pole enclosure.  Over time, many of the poles root and grow into 
tall, slim trees.  So when you look down on chinampas, most are 
outlined with trees that look very much like a line of hair running 
around their edges, a sort of tonsure, if you will.