<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Doug,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>The first thing you would think about this phase is that it is in the admonitive mode, because of the "-tin" ending and the initial "tla" particle. But this can't be, because the verb, "caqui", "to hear s.t." only takes one object, and your phrase has two, "qui", and "mo". What we assume now is that the final "-n" of the verb was just stuck on there (perhaps the phonologists can comment on that). Anyway, we end up with "tla quimocaquiti tlacatl", "may the lord hear it", a common phrase in Nahuatl petitions. You have the verb "caqui", "to hear something" in the reverential form: reflexive prefix "mo" + verb + causative suffix. This leaves us with one specific object, "qui", which is what the verb would take anyway. The class 3 verb is conjugated in the optative mode, loosing its final vowel: "caquitia" > "caquiti". In optative sentences like this one that don't have a second person subject, two initial particles can be used, "ma" and "tla", which signals a higher degree of politeness.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John Sullivan, Ph.D.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tacuba 152, int. 47</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Centro Histórico</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Zacatecas, Zac. 98000</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">México</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:idiez@mac.com">idiez@mac.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">www.idiez.org.mx<SPAN></SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>