Origin of [tl]

[Davius Sanctex]

I found a Nahuatl-related WWW file that said that Nahuatl [tl]
>arose from early Ute-Aztecan [t] when followed by [a] If so, what is >the
>origin of [tl] in e.g. "tlehco:" = "to ascend", and in the absolutive
>suffix [-tl(i)]?

I have completed a list of uto-aztecan cognates and there are
difficult examples. Regular and tipical examples are:
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Hopi  Nawatl  Comanche Pima   Yaqui  Raramuri Warihio

t     tl      t        t/ch   t      r        t
tama  tlantli ta:ma    tatami tami   ramé     tame  'tooth'
taqa  tlakatl tenahpï  cheoj         rihoy    tihoe 'man'

t     t       t        t/ch   t      r        t
      te:ntli tï:pe    chini  te:ni  riní           'mouth'
      tetl    tïpï            teta            tehte 'stone'

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Difficult exemples are:

Hopi  Nawatl  Comanche Pima   Yaqui  Raramuri Warihio
      tletl                   taya   rahá     taha  'fire, burn'
      kechtli                 kutana: kupá    kupa  'neck'
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1)I think that the first of these two problematic exemples
can be explained by later palatalization:
*tay- > *tlay- > tle-

2)About second exemple we can argue that roots: kut- are
not related to kech- (I think this is the case).

But still remain some difficulties ... what about words like: tahtli
'father'(a totonac loanword ?), tli:lli 'black' ...
and, of course, tlehco: 'ascend' [It's possible examples of
"tle" being explained by forms in "*tlay", but this argument
doesn't seem explain "tli" examples.

Finally a question about suffix -tl: is this suffix related
to "-ra" <*-ta [found in Tarahumara (raramuri) and Warihio]?
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