Cuitlahua vs. Cuitlahuac

[Gordon Whittaker]

Dear Roberto,

You write: "De acuerdo con el senalamiento de Gordon el nombre correcto
del lugar y del tlatohuani seria Cuitlahua".

Not exactly. I actually said that Cuitlahua the emperor should be
distinguished from Cuitlahuac the town, although these names are both
written with a final c in many non-Nahuatl and non-primary works. That's
what I meant by "false analogy" -- Cuitlahua the person receives his
frequent -c by mistaken analogy with the place name. The etymology of both
names is a matter of considerable debate, and the town name is especially
difficult.

I think you will find on closer examination that Chimalpahin repeatedly
and as a rule (also in his Cronica Mexicayotl) spells the name of the
emperor without a final c, although he spells Cuauhtemoc's name
consistently with one, regardless of whether -tzin is added. This pattern
is a consistent feature of most Nahuatl texts.

There are many examples of perpetuated errors akin to Cuitlahuac for
Cuitlahua: Tizoc, Ahuizotl, Netzahualcoyotl, Tlaltelolco, Atzcapotzalco,
Amequemecan, etc. Native speakers of Nahuatl also occasionally misanalyze
native names, just as Spanish and English speakers do with their own.

Best wishes,
Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gordon Whittaker
Professor
Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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