present progressive and some ideas about it

[Tomas Amaya]

Hello MIchael  and Listeros

 

In these lines I’d like to go back to present progressive and such matters
in Nahuatl. 

 

You know that many verbal terms, depending on their ending, may indicate a
intransitive or transitive action, e.g. tlapani vs. tlatlapana; polihui vs.
tlapolohua, etc. 

 

I am going to talk about the way in which the auxiliary verbal-particles ca
and oc are used by Nahuat-monolingual people and Spanish-Nahuat bilingual
people that cultivate a traditional Nahuat at home and with neighbors in the
Nahuat-speaking region of Cuetzalan, where I have a house and family.

 

I am going to use “TL”, though the Nahuat-pronunciation for this letter is
“T” (with the tip of the tongue on the upper part of frontal teeth). Let’s
begin. 

 

1.       The verbal ihcuilohua. Transitive: Nitlahcuilohua (I paint/write).
Intransitive: ihcuilihui (it gets painted / it gets written;  in Spanish: se
escribe / se pinta. E.g. ihcuilihui ica toezyo, in Sp.: se escribe/pinta con
sangre; in English something like: It gets painted with blood.).

2.       If I say nitlahcuilohtoc, I’m meaning something like “I am
painting”, but for me, a better way of expressing it, is: At the moment, I
am in the situation of someone who paints). V.g.: ahmo xinechcuehmolo,
nitlacuilohtoc! (Don’t bother me, I’m painting). 

3.       If I say nitlahcuilohtica, I’m meaning: I paint, I usually paint; v
.g.: Ce meztli ya nitlahcuilohtica (I write/paint since a month ago/ I am
writing since a month ago), i.e. since a month ago, I am in the usual state
of someone who paints. Another example: “X tlon ticcchihua mohmoztlah?” –
“Nitlahcuilohtica, yn neh nitlahcuilohqui” (“What do you do every day?,” –
“I paint, I usually paint, I am a painter”).

4.       If you write ihcuiliuhtoc, you have taken ihcuiliuh, the short form
of ihcuilihui, that at its turn comes from ihcuil/maybe ihcuilli. It has the
idea of “paint, take form”, being “ihui” the sound that brings action to the
stem (in this case an intransitive action=> ihcuilihui: it is painted/it
gets painted). Thus, ihcuiliuhtoc means: it is in the state of a paint; it
is in the state of something painted.

5.       If you write ihcuilohtica you mean: it is (has been and maybe will
be) in the state of a paint; it is in the state of something that has been
painted ant normally will remain so. 

6.       If you say ihcuilohtoc, you take ihcuiloh, the short form of
ihcuiloa, that at its turn comes also from ihcuil/maybe ihcuilli. It has the
idea of “paint, to fashion”, being “ohua/oa” the sound that brings action to
the stem (in this case a transitive action => (tla)ihcuilohua, that paints
(something) ). But what is the meaning of “ihcuilohua” without “tla”
(object)?, it means –after discussions with my wife, who has nahuat as
mother language— : (of) writing or (of) painting /Spanish: (de) escribir o
pintar; escrito o pintado.  Then you are meaning: it is written; it has been
written; it is now in writing  (Spanish: está escrito, ha sido escrito, en
forma escrita), cfr. the use of these endings in Chimalpahin and Sahagun)

7.       If you say ihcuilohtica, you are meaning it has been written. It is
in the situation of something that is or has been written; better said: (it
is) in writing. 

8.       So, I’ll write an example. Yn nonamic tlahcuilohtica ica
tlapohualoni, yehce yequintzin ahmo tlahcuilohtoc. Yalhua tlei za’ in
nechihcuilohuilih, xiquitta: nican itech inhin amatl ihcuilohtoc: “ahmo
nitequitiznequi oc”. Axcan ahmo neci yn nonamic. Xo quizac ohpan. 

Nican, xiquitta occe amatl in onca’. Ynhin ce iin namatl techmacacqueh ce
xihuititih ya’ ne teopan, in itech ihcuilohtica: “ahmo quemann nihuintiz”.
Huan axcan xiquitta, axá  tlahuantinemi inhuan inamigotes. 

Mmmh, Huel niquelnamiqui quenyuh quilhuih in teopixcatl: “Itech in Biblia
ihcuiliuhtica “amo titlayiz miec, ce copa za’ quemeh totahtzin Yezuz”. 

Ahmo quinectica tlayeccaquiz. Ce meztica tlahuantiyez huan zatepan:
Tepahtihqui huan tomin. Tiquitztozqueh quenyun nochi tlamiz: quitenamacaz in
tepoztlapohualoni, garahuadora, tele, nochi. ¡Cabron!. Cani yn ihcuilohtica
inic nochipa yetoz ce cihuat ihuan ihuehue mazqui mooztlah huenhuentica? 

Translation. My husband usually writes with a computer, but now he is not
witting. Yesterday he wrote something to me, just look: on this paper it is
written: “I do not want to work any more”. Now my husband has disappeared.
Probably he went out. 

Here, you see, there is another paper. This is a paper that was given to us
a year ago in the church. Thereon it is in writing: “I will never get drunk
again”. And now you can see, maybe he is going over there drinking with his
fellows. 

Mmmh, I remember very well what the priest said to him: On the Bible it is
written: “you shall not drink a lot, just a cup, like our Father Jesus”. He
has not wanted to listen. He will be drinking a month along and after that:
doctor and money. We will be seeing how everything will finish: he will sell
the computer, the tape-recorder, TV, everything, Cabrón!. Where is it
written that a woman must remain with her partner although he is drunk every
day?

9.       One last example: Yn axno ilpi’toc = the donkey is tied; Yn axno
ilpihtoc = I have the donkey tied, the first indicates an intransitive
action, the second a transitive one. 

 

Notes: 

1.       Nahuat-speaking people of Cuetzalan Region prefer the use of oc,
instead of ca. 

2.       See an example in Sahagún, “Adiciones, Apéndice a la Postilla y
Ejercicio Cotidiano”, Ed. de J. O. Anderson, UNAM, México; p. 156: “Yn ipan
Sancto Evangelio icuiliuhtoc. “, see also p. 184: “Jn Sancto Euangelio ipan
ihcuiliuhto(c) tlapallotoc, tlillotoc in tlahtolli 
” 

3.       En Chimalpahin: Tercera Relación, III Tochtli xihuitl, 1326:  “Auh
yn Acacitli ye quitohua in yoyahue tloquehenahuaquehe ca yehuatl in ynic
nicocha yn n Acacitli yn Chapoltepec yn popoliuhtoc yn notatzin yhuân yn
Azcatl Xochtzin yn noteyccaztzin”. My translation: “And then the mentioned
Acachitli expresses: ahh God, I, Acacitli, I cry because it is in
Chapultepec where  my father has (is) perished together with my younger
brother”; in V Tochtli xihuitl, 1510: “Nican neztica yn iquac peuh y
hualmoquequetzaya yn ilhuicatitech yn tlanextli yn iuhqui mixpanitl auh
nohuian ohuallitoc yn cemanahuac yn techyahuallotoc nohuian onetetzahuilloc
y tlanextli yn hualmoquequetzaya. My translation: “Hier it is expressed
about the time when (addressing to us) a light rose on the sky in the form
of a cloud-display that was seen in the whole country around. This light has
surrounded us everywhere as it was rising. 

4.       A last comment about ihcuil, the stem of verbal-forms ihcuilihui
and ihcuilohua. Maybe, I say maybe, it comes from iuhcui, i. e. take form.
It is the same idea of build in English and bilden in German. This way,
ihcuilohua may mean to give form to something  (someone). Remember that
there is a poem (translated by Leon Portilla, where it is written:
“Techihcuilohua in ipalnemohuani” = God write us, i.e. God fashions us.
German: Uns gestalt Gott. Spanisch: nos pinta el Dador de la Vida. 

 

Dear Listeros, I think I have written too much. Maybe I have gone too far. 

 

Timottazque occepa. Hasta la próxima. 

 

Tomas Amaya.

 

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