Nahuatl Word Recognition I

[Frances Karttunen]

Concerning tenamaztli as a member of the instrumental -(hu)a:ztli family
runs into a problem with respect to vowel length.  Using colons here to
indicate long vowels, there are:

        tzo:tzopa:ztli  'weaver's reed'
        tepona:ztli     'upright drum'
        tzonhua:ztli    'snare' (Carochi's form of Joe's original tzoaztli)
        tzicahua:ztli   'comb'
        ehcahua:ztli    'ladder'
        mamalhua:ztli   'fire drill'

And many more.

The vowel of -(hu)a:ztli is long every time.

Carochi doesn't give tenamaztli as an example in his grammar, and it
doesn't turn up in the Bancroft manuscript.  But the reflex of the last
vowel is short in the word as it appears in at least three modern dialects:
Tetelcingo, Zacapoaxtla, and Xalitla.

It looks like it's tenamaztli, not *tenama:ztli.

Moreover, if derived from tena:mitl 'wall' one would expect the vowel of
the MIDDLE syllable to be long too:  *tena:ma:ztli.

This important cultural word has always been a mystery to me.  Looks like
the first syllable te- should refer to the stones that form it, but what,
then, is a namaztli?

Fran