<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Listeros, <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Now that I'm on a roll, I'll throw something else out. </div><div>1a. <i>tlaixpamitl</i>, "altar" (absolutive noun)</div><div>1b. <i>notlaixpan</i>, "my altar", (possessed noun)</div><div>1c. <i>Xictlali xochitl tlaixpan</i>, "Put the flowers on the altar", (relational word)</div><div><br></div><div>2a. <i>cuatitlamitl</i>, "monte, uncleared land" (absolutive noun)</div><div>2b. <i>nocuatitlan</i>, "my uncleared land" (possessed noun)</div><div>3b. y<i>ahqui cuatitlan totomictito</i>, "he went into the woods to hunt some birds" (relational word).</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So, the question is, what came first: the chicken or the egg? Is the relational word (-tlan) simply the reduced form of a noun (tlamitl), or was the noun built on the relational word?<br></div><div>John</div></body></html>