Nahuatl Question

Frances Karttunen karttu at nantucket.net
Fri Jun 1 11:05:31 UTC 2001


>
>    In the following examples of "tlahyel-", culled from the Florentine
> Codex, I spelled the morpheme in question as "tlahe:l(-li)" as Andrews
> spells i.


Notice also that I didn't mark the vowel of the second syllable long.  The
reason I didn't make the vowel long in the canonical form in An Analytical
Dictionary of Nahuatl is that the vowel is not attested as long in the
Bancroft manuscript, and Tetelcingo Nahuatl seems to have the reflex of a
short vowel.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure that tlahyelli is derived from the verb
ihya:ya 'to stink' which has a long vowel (albeit a different vowel) in that
syllable.  An attestation from Zacapoaxtla actually has a: rather than e in
the derived noun.

Many thanks to Joe for all these attested uses from the Florentine Codex.
It's always a pleasure and a learning experience to receive his examples.
Tlazohca:mati huel miac!

Fran



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