ihhuia

[Campbell, R Joe]

John,

   Andrews points out in the first edition that, in addition to its other
peculiarities, "hui" is also responsible for the deletion of a following /k/:

p. 66:
    Ma: xiauh (xiyauh)          Go! (sing.)
    Ma: xihuia:n                Go! (pl., with the /k/ of "-ca:n" deleted)
    Ma: tihuia:n                Let's go (with the /k/ of "-ca:n" deleted)

p. 67:
    Ma: xihua:huia:n            Come! (pl., with the /k/ of "-ca:n" deleted)

p. 133:
Since "huitz" is composed of "hui" and "itz":
    o:cuala:tihui:tza           he came angrily [or he had come angrily;
                                with the /k/ of the pluperfect -ca deleted]

p. 113:
Again, the evidence of "hui-itz":
    i:quin o:tihui:tza          When did you come? (with the /k/ of the
                                "pluperfect" -ca deleted)

p. 63:
Again, the evidence of "hui-itz":
    tihui:tzeh                  we come (/k/ of the plural "-queh" deleted)

    o:anhui:tzah                y'all came, y'all had come (with the /k/ of the
                                "pluperfect" -ca deleted)


.........................


p. 65:
...another case of /k/ deletion...
In the case of the preterit-as-present tense:

    nicah   I am            ticateh   we are
    ticah   you are         ancateh   y'all are
    cah     he is           cateh     they are

   (the stem shows up as "cah" or "cat"; the plural -queh loses its /k/)

.........................


So, the identity of your mysterious "a" would seem to be the historical
plurperfect "-ca".  The deletion of the /k/ makes it fairly opaque and,
with all those generations of speakers of Nahuatl not having access to
Andrews' explanatory comments, I am slightly surprised that they didn't,
as children, give in to their analogical urges and restore the /k/.

Iztayohmeh,

Joe






Quoting "John Sullivan, Ph.D." <idiez at mac.com>:

> Listeros,
> 	There is a verb form in Modern Huastecan Nahuatl that I am having
> trouble explaining. "ihhuia" is the past perfect (pluscuamperfecto)
> of "to go"
> 	niihhuia, "I had gone"
> 	tiihhuia, "you had gone"
> 	ihhuia, "he/she/it had gone"
> 	tiihhuiah, "we had gone"
> 	inihhuiah, "you all had gone"
> 	ihhuiah, "they had gone"
> That's it, there are no other forms (beside the enclitics:
> niihhuiaya, niihhuiyayoc, etc.).
> Has anybody seen this in other variants? Any ideas as to the
> morphology? The "hui" verb comes to mind, but what about the initial
> "ih-"? Is the final "-a" an old "-ya", or is this a "-huia" suffix.
> And if so, what is the root?
> 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
> Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416
> Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048
> Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854
> idiez at mac.com
> www.idiez.org.mx
> www.macehualli.org
> ?
>
>
>
>
>




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