copichoa, panoltequi, ordinal sequences of textual space

[r. joe campbell]

Marque,

...comments below...

On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Mark David Morris wrote:

>
> Pleased to see a renewed interest in Nahuatl studies via this list,

ditto!!

On the problem of "copichoa" -- the 'hollowing out' and 'rolling up' seem
semantically cohesive to me.  If you roll up a manta, you end up with a
hollow space.

The semantic distance between that 16th century meaning and the 21st
century meaning that Luis Reyes Garcia supplies seems possible, especially
when you think of the "spooning" and gathering function of a rolled up
tortilla.


> 1) Speaking of some beams that the writer has asked be carried to a
> friend's outbuildings (mohxacaltzin), the writer further requests, "mah
> ompa mosecpichocan."  I tentatively identify the verb in question as
> "copichoa."  Luis Reyes Garcia tells me that this verb means "to store, to
> keep (guardar)" and cites orphans or something strewn on the floor as
> things apt to "copichoa."  Drawing from Molina, Remi Simeon defines
> "copichoa" as to roll something up such as a reed mat or a suit.  Finally,
> Joe Campbell glosses "copichoa (niccopichoa)" as to "hollow out,"


   Your "panoltequi" looks like something that is hard to fit with
"classical" Nahuatl (e.g., nitequipanoa), where the noun "tequitl" is
embedded in a verb.  And when they needed a verb out of "tequitl", it took
a suffix "-ti": "nitequiti" -- I have work.  It shouldn't be distressing
that there is a mismatch between dialects separated that much in time  --
I'm surprised by the amount of conservatism that we see in comparing
modern dialects to the older stages of the language.

>
> 2) In speaking of those same beams, the writer uses the verb "panoa."
> More specifically, he writes either "panolhuia," as Luis Reyes tells me I
> should read it, or writes, "panoltequi," as my eyes want to tell me.
> "Panoltequi" is a not too uncommon expression in Tlaxcala to say that one
> is passing time working, e.g. "nipanoltequi," (I am passing it working).
> I have never seen this verb as a transitive verb, however, as my
> paleography in this case would suggest.  Is there anyone familiar with
> Puebla-Tlaxcala Nahuatl who has any ideas about "panoltequi"?
>
>

Uh... chapter 11 of which book?

>
>
> P.S. The baptism ceremony is in chapter 11 of the Florentine Codice.
>
>


Best regards (and felicidades),

Joe