Etymology of ilna:miqui and ilcahua.

[R. Joe Campbell]

Fabian,
   I think that items (I can't say 'words' or 'morphemes') like
"ilna:miqui" and "ilca:hua" are at the heart of what makes Nahuatl
semantics/morphology enjoyable to do every day.  You never know how far on
the scale of metaphor-making the next word is going to be.  In this case,
you also (as Mark has pointed out) get the additional mystery of an
element "-il-" which is not distributed the way Nahuatl are in general --
they participate with combination with many other stems and they
frequently have more than one level of derivation.
   On the surface, it looks like "-il-" totally hides its basic nature.
Is it more like a noun or more like a verb?  Or something else?  I think
the answer lies in the fact that two verbs don't get slapped together in
Nahuatl the way nouns do.  With nouns, you get:
 (this is a long example and "-il-" *is* coming back...)

Nouns combine directly with nouns (noun + noun):
 (this list expects you to remember items you've already seen as you go.)

calli           house
nacaztli        ear
 cal-nacaztli   corner of a house

amoxtli         book
 amoxcalli      bookstore

cuitlatl        excrement
 cuitlacalli    latrine
 nacazcuitlatl  ear wax

atl             water
xictli          navel
 axictli        whirlpool
 acalli         boat, canoe

huictli         hoe
 ahuictli       oar

yacatl          nose
 acalyacatl     prow of a ship
 yacacuitlatl   mucous

That's enough noun + noun compounds to make the point.
  (if y'all want more of them, there are more left.)

-------------------------

Nouns also combine directly with verbs.  We say that they are embedded in
verbs as the direct object.

amoxtli         book
pohua           read
 amoxpohua      he reads a book (he book-reads)

cuicatl         song
chalania        clank
 cuicachalania  he gets a song out of tune

zoquitl         mud
chihua          make
 zoquichihua    he makes clay for building a wall

mazatl          deer (sometimes horse)
maitl           hand
ilpia           tie
 mazamailpia    he hobbles horses

ehuatl          skin
huehuetl        upright drum
tzotzona        pound
 ehuahuehuetzotzona  he plays a tambourine

--------------------------------

Even verbs which won't take direct objects will take a pre-posed noun.
Verbs that won't take a direct object:
  1. intransitive
  2. reflexive (since the reflexive object **is** the direct object)
The pre-posed noun acts as an **adverb**.
+++Note that this group is related to the recent discussion on "mo-teuc-zoma".


coyotl          coyote
nehnemi         walk
 nicoyonehnemi  I walk like a coyote (ni- = I)

apiztli         hunger
miqui           die
 apizmiqui      he is starving

choca           weep, cry, howl
 coyochoca      he howls like a coyote

ana             grab, drag
 nite*-yaca-ana I govern somebody (nite* = I + somebody)

aqui            fit, get into
 nizoquiaqui    I get mired down in mud

icxitl          foot, leg
 n(i)icxinehnemi I walk on foot


-----------

   The example *did* get out of maitl, but I thought you'd like to really
knead the dough of word structure a little bit.  Anyway, the point is that
something that is immediately juxtaposed to a verb is probably a *noun*.
So "-il-", being a noun, if we add the normal "absolutive" ending (like
"cal-", "calli"), would be "illi".  It is probably like "nit" in English;
not many people can say what a "nit" is.  It shows up in "nitpicker" and
"nitpicking", but what is a "nit".  Since what shows up before "-picker"
in words like "cottonpicker", "cornpicker", "peapicker" (thank you, Ern),
"applepicker", etc., is a noun, then "nit" must be a noun, but a noun that
is extinct in the vocabulary of most speakers of modern English.  Although
it still lives in "nitpicker", it is an obsolete morpheme in the English
of most people today.
   I think that the same thing is true of "illi".  The notion of "spirit"
is connected with "breath".  I think that that is basic meaning of 'illi"
and that it is interpreted as "mental"; therefore, when you "tiqu-ilcahua"
something, you *leave it mentally* (forget it); when you "tiqui-ilnamiqui"
something, you *find (run together with [literally, like two pieces of
lumber], join with) it mentally*.

Basically, I think that you had already intuited the right answer.

Best regards

Joe

p.s. and pardon necatlahtol.