"Tlal"

[amos megged]

I am a colonial historian currently working on the theme of indigenous
memory in the Mexico Basin between 1530 and 1580, and in particular on the
significance of limits and corner-stones in pictorial and testimonial
memory. Looking at your Analytical dictionary of Nahuatl, I am a bit
perplexed by something that might offer a real conceptual link between
"land" and "memory", and I very much hope that you would be able to guide
me on this:
Under the entry "Tlalcahua, you write that, Tlalcahuia morphologically
contrasts with tla-lcahu(a)<(i)cahu(a)l "to forget something"..while Molina
has tlalcaualli with both meanings of "something forgotten" and
uncultivated land". Is it very possible, conceptually, that the 'tla'
prefix, which signifies "something" ("material") is also very much derived
from tlal=land, and so, that, something forsaken is really related to land,
as the most basic ideal type for memorizing? Am I farfetched with this
assumption?

	I will be much grateful for your clarification on this point.

	Prof. Amos Megged
	Visiting Scholar,
	UC Berkeley (CLAS)