tlahtoa / saltillo

[John Sullivan Hendricks]

Galen,
	First of all, if I'm not mistaken, Carochi distiguishes between the
pronunciation of the word-internal and the word-final saltillo.  In other
words, saltillo refers not to a specific sound, but to a distinct linguistic
element whose sound may vary in different environments (I know there is a
word for this in linguistics: is it phoneme?  I can't remember.)  The
important thing is that this linguistic element (with its sound variations)
was used then and is still used now as the plural marker for the present
tense.  Its pronunciation may have evolved (although I'm not so sure), but
its function in this case is the same.
	I don't think what you hear at the end of the singular indicative is a
glottal stop.  This problem is precisely what called my attention to the
aspirated nature of the word final saltillo.  One of the native speakers I
work with (who is from Chapulhuacanito, municipio de Tamazunchale, San Luis
Potosí), pronounces what would standardly be considered a word final "i", as
an "e" (Spanish pronunciation reference).  Noting also that he uses a "t"
dialect, he would say, for example, "ayohte", instead of "ayohtli" for
calabaza.  The fun comes when a non-native speaker has to distinguish
between the singular and plural forms of preterite verbs.  Since he uses the
"old" singular marker, "-qui", which he pronounces "-que", we have for
example: "tinehnenque" = you walked, versus, "tinehnenqueh" = we walked.
When I first heard these two words, they sounded pretty much alike to me.
So I put my ear as close to my friends mouth as I could, and listened hard.
This is what I discovered.  First, the plural form ends with a barely
audible aspiration.  This is the saltillo.  The pronunciation of the vowel
which ends the singular form, terminates with a closing off of the throat.
But this is true of all word final vowels.  If they weren't pronounced this
way (with a definite end/closing of the throat), then air would escape the
mouth at the end of the pronunciation, and you will have added the saltillo.
(Which you don't want to do, unless that's really what you want to do,
right?)

	John Sullivan
	Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

-----Mensaje original-----
De: owner-nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu [mailto:owner-nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu]En
nombre de Galen Brokaw
Enviado el: Miércoles, 09 de Febrero de 2000 03:50 p.m.
Para: Multiple recipients of list
Asunto: Re: tlahtoa / saltillo

Hi John,
Ok, but isn't it misleading to call all of these phenomena "saltillo"?
The way I understand it, "saltillo" is the word in Spanish that refers to
the
glottal stop ["a little jump"]. It seems to me that the rules that you list
below force the term "saltillo"[=glottal stop] to apply to all phenomena
that
were glottal stops in Classical Nahuatl, but some of which have evolved and
turned into something else, such as an aspiration. I think this problem
arises
from applying older linguistic descriptions to modern speech without taking
into
account changes in pronunciation.
The best explanation for these changes that I have heard is that in
Classical
Nahuatl the "saltillo" was actually a glottal stop followed by an aspiration
when the stop is released (kind of like a grunt, I guess). In some
environments,
the glottal stop was lost leaving only an aspiration. Although Joe is my
source
for this, I believe he heard it from another linguist. Of course, this
doesn't
explain why the singular indicative marker would acquire the glottal stop
where
it didn't exist before.
Getting back to the terminology, I would argue the following:
1. "saltillo" means "glottal stop"
2. Depending upon the modern dialect some/many/all sounds that were
saltillos/glottal stops in Classical have evolved (into aspirations, for
example), and therefore should no longer be described as saltillos/glottal
stops.

Galen

John Sullivan Hendricks wrote:

> The saltillo spoken by the two native speakers from the Huasteca I work
with
> goes like this:
> 1. between two vowels it sounds just like an English "h": "ahacatl" = wind
> 2. between a vowel and a consonant it sounds like the saltillo described
in
> the classical grammars (Like Mark says : glottal stops that emanate and
> terminate below the mouth): "ohtli" = road
> 3. at the end of a word it's a barely audible aspiration after the vowel:
> "ticamanaloah" = we talk.
>
>         John Sullivan
>         Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas