<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Piyali Magnus,<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But isnʻt that just the way Nahuatl is? How do you describe something in Nahuatl? You say that itʻs semblance is the result of having completed a certain action, i.e., chip:hua>chipa:huac or tetiya>tetic. And this last one is just an excuse for saying that it resembles some other noun. So there really arenʻt any adjectival roots in Nahuatl, except for maybe hueyi.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"co:z-" isnʻt just for color. [first of all I need to remark that in Huastecan Nahuatl co:ztic has a long "o"]. "co:ztzin" is a type of corn, so co:ztic just means that something has come to resembled that kind of corn (in itʻs yellowness). And yes, there is the intermediate form co:ztiya, "for something to yellow".</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"co:cihui" means that a fruit is ripening and turning yellow (co:z[tli]-ihui).</div><div>John</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; 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; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div 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; ">John Sullivan, Ph.D.</font></div><div 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></div><div 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></div><div 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></div><div 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></div><div 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; ">Centro Histórico</font></div><div 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, Zac. 98000</font></div><div 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; ">Mexico</font></div><div 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; ">Work: +52 (492) 925-3415</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Fax: +1 (858) 724-3030 (U.S.A.)</div><div 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; ">Home: +52 (492) 768-6048</font></div><div 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; ">Mobile: +52 1 (492) 103-0195</font></div><div 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; "><a href="mailto:idiez@me.com">idiez@me.com</a></font></div></span></span></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>On Nov 10, 2009, at 12:16 PM, Magnus Pharao Hansen wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Hi Listeros<br><br>Just wanted to chip in on the color topic, albeit a little belatedly. I have worked with color terminology studies in the past and done a small pilot survey in Hueyapan. I thought it would be worth it to mention that in fact the most interesting thing about Nahuatlo colourterminology is that according to the criteria of Paul Kay and Brent Berlin in their "Basic Color Terms" Nahuatl could be one of the only languages in the world <b>not </b>to have any true color terms! According to Berlin and Kay all languages have between two and eleven basic color terms, in a predictable order, i.e. if it has three it has black, white and red, if it has five it has those three plus yellow and either green or blue etc. What's interesting is that among the criteria is that a basic color term is not derived from anyother word - the term must be exclusively related to color. That means that e.g. "lemon" for lemon green is not a basic color term, but a secondary one. As you have probably noticed in Nahuatl all colorterms could be argued to be secondary (arguably not kostik and kapotstik, which are probably derived, but from words we don't know). The fact that Nahuatl doesn't have any roots (other than kapots- and kos- if we accept them) specficially and exclusively referring to color properties makes it a very special language.<br>
<br>Oh and btw. one of my consultants from Hueyapan who is always good at making up folketymologies did translate kamohpaltik as "no está mojado". In Hueyapan the purple color is called simply kamohtik.<br><br>Magnus Pharao Hansen<br>
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