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

[Frances Karttunen]

In the list Joe generated for us, notice this apparent difrasismo for mask:
'breast (chi:chi:hualli), face (xa:yacatl)'

>   chichihualli xayacatl



But further on in Joe's list, we find:  'something counterfeit
(tlachihchi:hualli), face (xa:yacatl)'

>   tlachichihualli xayacatl. maxcara o caratula (55m).



And then a compound in the other order: 'something face-wise counterfeit':

>   xayacatlachichihualli. maxcara o caratula; caratula o maxcara (55m, 71m1,
71m2)



The latter two cast doubt on what at first looked like a neat difrasismo.
We look again and see that in fact the first entry has a tla- tucked in
there at the end:

>   chichihualli xayacatl, tla-. maxcara o caratula (71m1).




So chi:chi:hualli ('breast') figures in none of these.

It is assembly of information from within and across sources, as Joe so
often does for this list, that helps us avoid false etymologies, a problem
that has plagued Nahuatl studies at least since the publication of Simeon's
dictionary.