another interp

[John Joseph Sullivan Hendricks]

Fran,
    First of all, yes, I forgot to include the object prefixes:
"nikkowaskia" and "nikpixtos". I do that pretty often because in this
environment it is as you say: the "k" is not pronounced.
    Second, I don't think we are dealing with the purposive form here,
because in the examples I have heard so far, the main verb stem always takes
the form of the preterite theme.
    And since you mentioned the purposive forms here, the Huastecan speakers
I work with deal with the purposive forms in the following way:
"-co" and "-to" are the singular past tense forms, while "-ki" and "-ti" are
the singular future forms. I haven't ever heard the purposive used in the
present tense. In all cases the plural forms are achieved by adding the
"saltillo". I specifically asked for "-kiw", "-kiwij" and "-tiw", "-tiwij",
and they are not used. I can't remember right now how the command forms
work, but I will ask next week.
    John Sullivan

On 17/03/2001 20:26, "Frances Karttunen" <karttu at nantucket.net> wrote:

>
>>> 3. "nipixtos" = preterite form of "piya" + "ti" ligature, + "o" (to be
>>> lying) + "s" (future). This is the Nahuatl equivalent of the past
>>> subjunctive in Spanish.
>
> There is another possible way to look at this.  There are "purposive"
> suffixes -quiuh/-co meaning 'to come to do something' and -tiuh/-to 'to go
> to do something.'
>
> The -co and -to forms tend to be generalized at the expense of the
> -quiuh/-tiuh forms.
>
> So maybe "nipixtos" can be understood as 'I (would) go to take care of
> (something)' with the future -s still carrying a sense comparable to the
> Spanish subjunctive.
>
> After all, -s (spelled -z in the Spanish-based orthograpy) appears at the
> end of Nahuatl conditional forms such as "nicnequi nicochi-z" 'I want to
> sleep' and in the middle of conditional forms such as nicmaca-z-quiya 'I
> would sell it.'  So it would make sense that it would be identified with the
> Spanish subjunctive.
>
> What I notice in this form is that the object prefix is missing.  One would
> expect "ni-k-pixtos."  Is it possible that there is a soft, barely audible
> -h- where I have written -k-?  Or is it really gone?
>
> Fran
>