Mes, veintena and trecena

[Chema Tlaquetzqui]

I don't know if I understood the question, but I worked programming a  
few Mesoamerican (Long count mostly) calendars a few months ago as  
part of another project and I started to use the word "score" (as in  
a group of 20, like "Four score and seven years ago...") for the 20- 
day month. When I started looking at the literature, I realized the  
Spanish translation (veintena) was also used. My theory is that back  
in the day people used the terms score/veintena as often as they do  
now in French. Trecena (and docena and quincena) is just an extension  
of that. Why use it for 18, I don't know. Maybe the inconvenience of  
using "deciochona" and being close to 20? Score certainly is a  
practical word to use in English.

Chema

On Aug 21, 2009, at 19:32 , Gordon Whittaker wrote:

> Dear Paul,
>
> We do actually have a Classical Nahuatl term for 'month'. It's the  
> same as
> the one for 'moon': me:tztli. As for the origin of veintena, good
> question! I, too, would like to know who first used trecena and  
> veintena
> in a Mesoamerican sense.
>
> Best,
> Gordon
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:22:23 -0400
>> From: "macehual08 at gmail.com" <macehual08 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Nahuat-l] veintena
>>
>> Hello,Could anyone tell me who coined the term "veintena" to  
>> describe the
>> 18
>> "months" of the xihuitl "calendar"? Or anything about how or when  
>> it came
>> into scholarly use?
>>
>> Alternatively, do you know who among the earliest chroniclers used  
>> the
>> term?
>> (Sahag?n, for example, seems mostly to use the term "mes.")
>>
>> Or, does anyone know the Nahua equivalent? (I've read in several  
>> places
>> that
>> the term is unknown.)
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Paul
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Gordon Whittaker
> Professor
> Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
> Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
> Universitaet Goettingen
> Humboldtallee 19
> 37073 Goettingen
> Germany
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> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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