nauh coincidence?

[r. joe campbell]

John,
  My comments are interspersed:

On Thu, 7 Sep 2000, John Sullivan wrote:

>     Is the following (suggested by a colleague in Cuernavaca) a coincidence
> or is there a linguistic foundation?
> 1. (tla)canaua: adelgazar tablas o piedras anchas o la loça cuando la hace
> (Molina).

   I don't think so.  I know there are some things that we still don't
know about stem variation, but I *do* think that when there is variation,
it is at the end of the apparent stem (in this case, 'canahua').  The
safest part of the stem for identification is the beginning.
   For example, in the examples of 'canahua' that I include below, you
find the "basic" shape, but 'canac-tic' as well.  'patlahua', "widen", has
the same variation (nic-patlahua = I widen it; patlahua-c = wide; and
patlac-tic = wide), but it has a *third* stem variation: patlach-tic =
wide.


> 2. Nahualpilli: dios de los lapidarios (Simeon).

   I don't know enough about the culture and the pantheon to have an
opinion, but I think the absence of 'ca-' is fatal.

> 3. nahui: adj.n. para contar los seres animados, los objetos finos y planos
> (Simeon).

   I wonder why Simeon narrowed his definition down so much more than
Molina did.  In his 1571 Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary, Molina (f118v) said:

Para contar cosas animadas, maderos, mantas, chili, papel, esteras,
tablas, tortilas [sic], sogas o cordeles, hilo, pieles, canoas, barcas o
nauios, cielos, cuchillos, ca~delas o cosas semejantes, dizen enesta
manera.


Then he gives the *generic* list of numbers.  I don't think that he meant
to limit their use to flat things -- even though I'm puzzled about why he
limited them at all.

Here is the list of some occurrences of <canahua> from the FC.

Best regards,

Joe


cana:hua***
  cacanactic.  thin overall. <dupl-cana:hua-tic>.
  canahua.  it becomes thin. <cana:hua>.
  canahua.  it lessens; it thins. <cana:hua>.
  canahuac.  fine, thin. <cana:hua-c1>.
  canahuacantli.  temple. <cana:hua-ca:n-tl>.
  canahualoni.  something which can be thinned. <cana:hua-lo:1-ni1>.
  canahuaz.  it will shrink. <cana:hua-z>.
  ehuayocanahuac.  thin-skinned. <e:huatl-yo:tl1-cana:hua-c1>.
  icanahuacan.  his temples; on his temples; on the side of it head;
    on the sides of its head; sides of its head.
    <poss-cana:hua-ca:n>.
  icanahuaya.  its thin place. <poss-cana:hua-ya:n>.
  incanahuacan.  on their temples; their temples.
    <poss-cana:hua-ca:n>.
  iztacanactli.  thin bar of salt. <iztatl-cana:hua-prt1-l2>.
  mocanahua.  it is flattened, it is thinned. <p54-cana:hua>.
  motecanahua.  it is thinned, it is made slender. <p54--cana:hua>.
  nacacanahuac.  thin-fleshed. <nacatl-cana:hua-c1>.
  nacayocanahuac.  thin-fleshed. <nacatl-yo:tl1-cana:hua-c1>.
  niccanahua.  I thin it. <p11-p33-cana:hua>.
  quicanahua.  they thin it; they thin it out. <p33-cana:hua>.
  quicanahuaya.  they flattened it. <p33-cana:hua-ya3>.
  tlacanahuacazotl.  thinly stitched. <p51-cana:hua-zo:1-l2>.
  tlacanahualli.  something which is thinned; something that is
    thinned; thin [plate]. <p51-cana:hua-l1>.
  tlacanahuani.  one who thins something. <p51-cana:hua-ni1>.
  tocanahuacan.  our temple. <poss-cana:hua-ca:n>.
  xincayocanahuac.  having thin scales.
    <xi:ma-prt1-ca:5-yo:tl1-cana:hua-c1>.