Dear Tom<br><br>No, tepemaxtla does not mean "mountain splitter", nor is the etymology you propose possible. Tepe:- does indeed mean mountain, but maxtla does not come from maxalihui or maxac - it comes from maxtlatl - meaning fox (or by extension other small furry carnivorous mammals). Tepemaxtla simply means mountain-fox. The reason it is not possible to derive maxtla from maxalihui or maxac is that that would leave the -tla element unexplained, and because there is no known derivational process that could derive maxtla from maxalihui or maxactli. <br>
<br>best regards<br><br>Magnus<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">From: grigsby tom <<a href="mailto:tom_grigsby@yahoo.com">tom_grigsby@yahoo.com</a>><br>
To: <a href="mailto:nahuatl@lists.famsi.org">nahuatl@lists.famsi.org</a><br>Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:37:27 -0800 (PST)<br>Subject: [Nahuat-l] cacomistles<br><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="font: inherit;" valign="top">
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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><font size="3"><font face="Tunga">Estimados listeros,</font></font></span>
</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><font face="Tunga" size="3"> </font></span>
</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><font size="3"><font face="Tunga">Am I correct in referring to the tepemaxtla as a “mountain splitter?”<span> </span>My reasoning is as follows:</font></font></span>
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</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Tunga"><span lang="EN-US">The <u>tepemaxtla</u><span> </span>is </span><span lang="EN">a <a title="Nocturnal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">nocturnal</span></a>, <a title="Arboreal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arboreal" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">arboreal</span></a> and <a title="Omnivore" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">omnivorous</span></a> mammal <span>known in English as the ring-tailed cat or <u>cacomistle</u> (<i><a title="Cacomistle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacomistle" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Bassariscus sumichrasti</span></a></i> or <i>B.astutus</i>) and is a member of the Procyonidae family that </span>includes the <a title="Procyon (genus)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procyon_%28genus%29" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">raccoons</span></a>, <a title="Coati" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">coatis</span></a>, <a title="Kinkajou" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkajou" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">kinkajous</span></a>, and <a title="Olingo" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olingo" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">olingos</span></a>.<span> </span><span>The etymology of the animal’s Tepoztecan name comes from the Nahuatl <u>tepetl</u>, “mountain or hill, and the verb </span></span><u><span>maxalihui</span></u><span lang="EN-US">, to </span><span>split, divide, </span><span lang="EN-US">or </span><span>fork</span><span lang="EN-US">; I would therefore gloss the barrio’s epithet as “the mountain splitter.”<span> </span>According to Redfield’s informants, the propensity to “live under the rocks” may account for the barrio’s inhabitants’ identification with the <u>tepemaxtla</u> and their nickname (1930:82).<span> </span></span></font></font>
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</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><font face="Tunga"><span lang="EN-US"><span> </span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: Tunga; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span> Alonso de Molina, 1571, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana (Mexico City: Porrua, 1970), f. 78r.<span lang="EN-US"><span> </span>Frances Karttunen (1992:141) writes: The sequence MAX appears in many entries in M (Molina) and S (Simeon) having to do with bifurcation…and under <u>Maxac</u>-<u>tli</u>, “thighs or crotch” (p.141). In San Andrés de la Cal the Nahuatl word
<u>maxac</u> refers to </span>the <i>labia</i> <i>majora</i><span lang="EN-US"> (Grigsby 1990; field notes</span>.<span lang="EN-US"></span></font>
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</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3"><font face="Tunga">Thank you for your comments,</font></font></span>
</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Tunga" size="3"> </font></span>
</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3"><font face="Tunga">Tom Grigsby</font></font></span><br>G.S. Rakovski St., No.79 <br>Boboshevo, 2660 Bulgaria<br>GSM: 359 0899 784 081</p>
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<br></blockquote><br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Magnus Pharao Hansen<br><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Graduate student<br>Department of Anthropology<br></span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Brown University </span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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