Nahuatl Word Recognition I

[R. Joe Campbell]

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

   I'd better say first that my intent was not to meant to """trap"""
anybody into saying something and then jump on their efforts.  I see our
intercourse as a group of friends sitting on a log (pretty long log, huh?)
and talking about things of mutual interest.  There will be some blind
alleys...


> 1.  trap

***  I agree -- if you picture a particular kind of trap.  Even this
proviso may be too narrow, if you keep in mind the willingness of Nahuatl
to engage in daring metaphor and in semantic extension.

> 2.  itzoma - cover something with straw; ual - towards, aci - arrive.

***  "ihtzoma" is a transitive verb, so you would expect an object prefix.
..where does the straw come in?  ...and the semantics of the verb have to
do with sewing, stitching, and tailoring.

"hual" normally keeps its /l/.  ...and it's a prefix; have we seen it
before the verb stem?

"ahci" has to do with 'reaching' and 'arriving' -- do the semantics fit?
I think that you're considering the possibility of "-aztli" being formed
as a patientive noun, but "ahci" shows up with a /x/ in the patientive
noun formation.


> 3.  Sounds like a trap to me.  What do you mean ambigous?

***  I didn't mean for it to sound like a trap... |8-<)
'Ambiguous' just means that a word has two meanings, perhaps comes from
two different sources, either structurally or in terms of its
morphological makeup.

O.K.  I really wanted to save this one for later, but here's another
interesting one:

  tzoyotl

Same three questions.

Joe