Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Nahuatl in the early years

[Frances Karttunen]

i:xa:yac is the third-person-singular possessed form of xa:yactli.  When the
possessive prefix i:- is added, the absolutive suffix -tli drops off the
end.  Since xa:yactli itself means 'visage.' there's no need to compound it
with i:xtli 'face, eye.'  I:-xa:yac means 'his/her/its face/visage/mask.'

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>From: "Chichiltic Coyotl" <notoca at hotmail.com>
>To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>Subject: Re: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Nahuatl in the early years
>Date: Wed, Aug 16, 2000, 5:35 PM
>

>
>>Paul Anderson wrote
>>
>>“Ixayac”
>>I have this for “face”. It is a rock face, but the two girls call their
>>secret place that because it looks like a human face or mask. (There has
>>been discussion of masks already in the chapter.)
>>
>
> I have a question on i:xa:yac. The following are only my thoughts on the
> meaning so please do not take them as being "gospel".
> I:xa:yac ?appears? to be a compound of i:x-tli (face, eye, surface) and
> xa:yaca-tl (face, mask). I'm assuming two things when these two nouns come
> together - 1) the "x" from xa:yaca-tl is dropped and the length of the vowel
> a: remains the same. This compound ?appears? to translate as "face mask" or
> possibly it's just a doubling up of the words for "face", however, is this a
> logical compound considering that xa:yaca-tl appears to cover both concepts
> of "face" and "mask"? A compound like co:a:xa:yac "snake mask" would appear
> to make more sense. Would xa:yaca-tl by itself suffice as a suitable
> translation for "face mask"?
>
> Did the Nahua have the same concepts for both "face" and "mask"?
>
> Thanks,
>
> EZR
>
>
>
>
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