devoiced "n's

[idiez at mac.com]

When my native speaking friends say "ama", "today", and "amantzi",
"right now";
or "nica", "here", and "nicantzi", "right here", I can pretty much tell
that we are
dealing with devoiced "n"s at the end of "ama(n)" and "nica(n)".
Perhaps the "-tzi"
is also actually "-tzi(n)" with a devoiced "n". My question is this: My
friends also say
  "tohuanti", "we", "inmohuanti", "you all", and "ininhuanti", "they";
as well as
"Ximoquetzaca", "Stand up, all of you." Given that both "n" and the
saltillo are plural
indicators, are we dealing with "tohuanti(n)" or "tohuanti(h)", etc.,
etc? When my
friends get back in town, I plan on having them doing some serious
wispering
in my ear, and perhaps that will give me an answer. But I would
appreciate any
comments. Also, if utterance final "n"s have always been devoiced, does
that mean
that words such as the preterite singular of "cualani", were actually
pronounced
"cuala"? (In modern huastecan nahuatl the "n" is protected:
"cualanqui".) And if this
is so, how did the early writers of dictionaries and grammars know if a
word ended
in "n" or not? Some words, such as the "nica(n)" - "nicantzi(n)" pair
have optional
suffixes that provide a clue. But how about the nouns that end in
"-in", for example?
Modern huastecan nahuatl says "quatochi" for "rabbit". I assume
"tochi(n)" has always
been pronounced with a devoiced "n". How would you know?

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
Francisco García Salinas 604
Colonia CNOP
Zacatecas, Zac. 98053
México
+52 (492) 768-6048
idiez at mac.com
www.idiez.org.mx