<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: adjectives & xoxopeualiztli</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
on 7/28/04 4:19 PM, rick dosan at rich_photos@YAHOO.COM wrote:<BR>
<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>> Ueli is an adjective, and it could mean -good or posible.<BR>
<BR>
Huel(i) is a verb meaning 'to be able to.'<BR>
<BR>
Huel has the sense "possible," and it also serves as an intensifier, meaning 'very.'<BR>
<BR>
Hueliyoh is a derived noun meaning someone or something invested with the quality of possibility or ability, hence someone or something powerful.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
> How flexible can certain adjectives be read as "to be" (ie, to be good), as if they had a connection to verbs?<BR>
<BR>
There is a preterite-as-present verb cah that can express 'to be' overtly, but for the most part in Nahuatl 'to be' is unexpressed (as in Russian, by the way).<BR>
<BR>
As for adjectives, a case can be made that prior to calquing on Spanish constructions Nahuatl had no distinct class of adjectives.<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>