cocoa huan icana

[John Sullivan, Ph.D.]

Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
	Letʻs say that a few years ago, a distinguished gentleman in our  
field may have challenged me to find another verb that words like  
"cocoa". I assume he meant a verb that starts with a noun root, such  
as "cocotl", adds a verbing suffix, in this case an "-a" and produces  
a transitive verb. Letʻs also say that he may have promised to buy me  
a beer if I happened to find such a verb.
	First, I should say that there are two "cocoa". One is intransitive:  
"cocohtoc nometz", "my leg is injured". The other is transitive:  
"nechcocoa nometz", "my leg hurts", and "niccocoh nomah", "I hurt my  
hand". So there must be at least two "-a" verbing suffixes: one makes  
intransitive verbs and another makes transitive verbs.
	Now letʻs say that the gentleman in question saw me at a conference  
and wanted to avoid me because he didnʻt want to fork out the money to  
buy me the beer. What does he do? "Nechicana", "He walks around in  
back of me". This verb, "icana" is formed from the root "ican", which  
is also the root of the relational word that takes the form "icampa"  
in Classical Nahuatl. In Classical you would say, "nicampa", "behind  
me"; "micampa", "behind you"; etc. In Modern Huastecan Nahuatl you use  
the bare root and say, "noican", "behind me", "moican", "behind you";  
etc.
	Anyway, the "-a" verbing suffix is added to that root, "ican" to form  
an transitive verb, "icana", nic", "to walk around in back of someone".
	So the only thing left to say to the gentleman in question is,  
"Axcanah xinechicana; xinechcohui ne chichic".
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor of Nahua language and culture
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Tacuba 152, int. 43
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
Mexico
Work: +52 (492) 925-3415
Fax: +1 (858) 724-3030 (U.S.A.)
Home: +52 (492) 768-6048
Mobile: +52 1 (492) 103-0195
idiez at me.com
www.macehualli.org

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