sixteenth-century Hidalgo Nahuatl

[Huaxyacac at aol.com]

I am currently working with parish registers from Mixquiahuala, Hidalgo.
Those from the late sixteenth century are in Nahuatl, although by the
seventeenth century there is no record of any language other than Otomi being
spoken there. I have only just begun to transcribe the Nahuatl records, but
have already stumbled over one name that makes me curious.

The most common male name so far is Cuixtli, which I assume is a variant of
cuixin, hawk. Looking through Lastra's Areas Dialectales, I cannot find any
modern dialect that uses a related form; those that have forms of cuix- use
-in, not -tli. I am wondering if the -tli form is the product of non-native
Nahuatl speakers regularizing  a non-standard noun. Has anyone else found
cuixtli rather than cuixin?

Thanks,
Alec Christensen
Rutgers-Camden
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