Nahuatl Word Recognition I

[R. Joe Campbell]

Nocnihuan,
   Some of us are interested mainly in culture and history and others
mainly in language.  But that doesn't mean that most of us aren't
interested in some degree in *all* of it.  My main interest is in the
mechanics of words and *how* they mean what they mean.  My interest in the
application of this is how a person develops fluency in word recognition
and reading in Nahuatl.  "Had we but world enough and time..." we could
depend on osmosis (and I don't deny that osmosis has its place), but most
of us have finite lives, so some efficiency is in order.
   Despite the recent interest in more speculative topics, I believe that
we have something to gain from looking at the nuts and bolts of the
language.  I offer an interesting question (at least, I found it
interesting when it dawned on me):

   tzoaztli

1. what does it mean?
2. *how* does it mean? (i.e., what are its meaning parts?)
3. is it ambiguous?

Joe