<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Piyali notequixpoyohuan,<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Letʻs say that a few years ago, a distinguished gentleman in our field may have challenged me to find another verb that words like "cocoa". I assume he meant a verb that starts with a noun root, such as "cocotl", adds a verbing suffix, in this case an "-a" and produces a transitive verb. Letʻs also say that he may have promised to buy me a beer if I happened to find such a verb. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>First, I should say that there are two "cocoa". One is intransitive: "cocohtoc nometz", "my leg is injured". The other is transitive: "nechcocoa nometz", "my leg hurts", and "niccocoh nomah", "I hurt my hand". So there must be at least two "-a" verbing suffixes: one makes intransitive verbs and another makes transitive verbs.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Now letʻs say that the gentleman in question saw me at a conference and wanted to avoid me because he didnʻt want to fork out the money to buy me the beer. What does he do? "Nechicana", "He walks around in back of me". This verb, "icana" is formed from the root "ican", which is also the root of the relational word that takes the form "icampa" in Classical Nahuatl. In Classical you would say, "nicampa", "behind me"; "micampa", "behind you"; etc. In Modern Huastecan Nahuatl you use the bare root and say, "noican", "behind me", "moican", "behind you"; etc.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anyway, the "-a" verbing suffix is added to that root, "ican" to form an transitive verb, "icana", nic", "to walk around in back of someone".</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So the only thing left to say to the gentleman in question is, "Axcanah xinechicana; xinechcohui ne chichic".</div><div>John</div><div><br></div><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; 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">John Sullivan, Ph.D.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Professor of Nahua language and culture</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Tacuba 152, int. 43</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; 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