Nahuatl Digest, Vol 134, Issue 2

[Magnus Pharao Hansen]

I did write prefix about the classical Nahuatl data as well even though
there is a noun root i:x- in CN. I think i did it nearly without thinking
about it as I had already called the same element a prefix in a modern
Nahuatl dialect.

But to defend my usage I would say that it is a question of analysis of data
and the definition of prefix. The question here becomes whether words
consistsing of i:x- and another root are best analyzed as compounds of two
root or as a single root with a prefix (the i.x morpheme pretty consistently
occurs as the first element). I think that in CN both analysis are viable:
The compound analysis because other noun roots can also be prefixed to noun
or verb roots and because ht meaning of the prefixed noun root has a clear
semantic relation to the free noun root. The prefix analysis could be
supported by the argument that bodypart nouns nearly always occur as the
first element in a compound (i.e. they are prefixed), that they often have a
broader more generic meaning when they are prefixes than when they are free
noun roots and finally there are some good morphological arguments that
might be used. Bodypart incorporation in CN works differently than
incorporation/compounding of other kinds of nouns. Carochi mentions that
when an object owned by someone is incorporated into a verb that verb must
take the applicative. For example ni-k-xo:chi-ichteki-lia "I steal his
flower" but if the incorporated possessed noun is a bodypart noun it doesn't
take the applicative e.g. ni-k-ke:ch-mateloa "I wring its neck" and not
*ni-k-kech-matelo-lwia which would instead mean "i wring its neck for
someone". These are my examples, I can't remember Carochis now and I am too
far away from the book to find it right now - ill get back with references
if you can't find it. David Fleck writing about Matses has suggested that in
Matses bodypart prefixing is not NI but rather a special kind of applicative
construction because a bodypart prefix introduces an extra participant to
the predicate - the CN evidence as
analyzed by Carochi seems to suggest that such an analysis could also work
for Classical Nahuatl.

Another difference from bodypart nouns in compounding and other nouns is
that it can form a special kind of compound that launey calls a restrictive
compound. In these compounds the second noun describes the first noun
instead of the other way round: yolloh-tetl "stone-hearted/brave" or "a
stone concerning the heart" or i:x-patzac "eye-mildew/blind" "mildewed
concerning the eye". Bodypart nouns are by far most frequent first
constituent of these kinds of compounds. As I said I believe it is a
question of analysis whether to prefer one analysis of the other. I am
working on a paper about Hueyapan Nahuatl where the mass of evidence for
preferring an analysis including distinct morphological class of bodypart
prefixes is much stronger than in CN because in many cases they do not have
corresponding noun roots in the language and because bodypart nouns is the
only noun class to have fully productive NI.

Magnus



>
>  Magnus, regarding your statement “Molina has entries for a transitive
> verb ‘ixnauatia’ which means ‘condenar o despedir a otro, proponer
> firmamente alguna cosa, reprochar alguno’. It is composed of the verb
> nahuatia ‘to order’ and the i:x- prefix”, I have a question. How does the
> lack of i:xtli in modern Hueyapan Nahuatl make i:x- a prefix in Molina, when
> the noun i:xtli is registered in this source? Please excuse my insistence on
> this point. I don’t have an axe to grind, but I do have a list of early
> colonial Nahuatl affixes I made for my students, and if I happen across a
> new prefix I’ll have to add it to this list.
>
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