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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Ian:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nice site. I think there are some phonetic problems
with the four words containing the morpheme tecuh(tli) ("Mictlantecuhtli",
"Tlaltecuhtli" and "Moctezuma"). The way the first two are spelled, as I (think
I) understand it, reflects one of the imprecisions of colonial Nahuatl
othography. There's really no /u/ in 16th century central Nahuatl except as an
allophone of /o/, but in "tecuhtli" this allophone is not represented. The
digraphs "cu", "qu" and "uc", when they appear in colonial texts, all represent
a consonant, not a syllable. This phoneme is a sort of /k/ pronounced with
rounded lips, which can be written phonetically as /kw/ (superscript w). Thus
"tecuhtli" (also spelled "teuctli" in many sources), is really /tekwtli/
(superscript w). The "h" in "tecuhtli" adds to the confusion. It's probably
there because the digraphs "hu" and "uh" were used to write the semiconsonant
/w/, which puts the lips in the same position as /kw/, ignoring what's going on
behind them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Solution? It would be less confusing to spell these
words as Mictlanteuctli, Tlalteuctli and Moteuczoma. These forms are found in
colonial and modern literature, so they don't break with the traditional
orthography you use in the other words. "Moctezuma" can be scrapped, both in the
written and the audio files, since it's not a Nahuatl word, just a loan from
Nahuatl to Castillian.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are people on this list that know more about
Nahuatl phonology than I do; if you're reading this, please correct me if I'm
wrong (or too confident on a topic as hypothetical as 16th century
pronunciation; all of the people who wrote the texts are dead and unavailable
for consultation).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Peace,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David Wright</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>