tequixquitl

[jmchavar at itesm.mx]

  In Mexico City markets it's also sold tequesquite; it's like salt and
it's used for making tamales, instead of salt.




>-- Mensaje Original --
>Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 09:58:07 -0500
>Subject: Re: tequixquitl
>Cc: nahuat-l at mrs.umn.edu
>To: "r. joe campbell" <campbel at indiana.edu>
>From: idiez at mac.com
>
>
>Joe,
>	I talked to my sister-in-law about tequesquite. She says when she was

>little,
>and still living on the ranch (El Tepetate, Zacatecas), her mother
>would buy
>tequesquite, in the form of granules, like table salt. It was only used

>as a meat
>tenderizer. For example, if they were boiling a chicken, and the meat
>was very
>tough, they would put tequesquite in the water. You can still buy it
>here in Zacatecas.
>	I'm also stumped with how "quixtia" gets nominalized in this word, if

>indeed this
>is the correct root. Nominalization including the preterite suffix
>"-qui", however,  is common in
>Huastecan Nahuatl. For example, "nitlamachtia" > "nitlamachtihqui"  >
>"nitlamachtihquetl".
>tequixqui
>John
>
>John Sullivan, Ph.D.
>Centro de Estudios Prospectivos
>Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
>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
>On Saturday, May 10, 2003, at 05:13  PM, r. joe campbell wrote:
>
>> Note the following sentence quoted from Sahagun's _Psalmodia
>> Christiana_,
>> edited by Arthur Anderson (p. 74):
>>
>>    Ic oitlacauh in cemanaoatl, in tlalticpactli, ca **otequixquiquiz**,
>> otetzacat, aocmo vel muchiua in *tonacauitl*, aocmo no qualli in
>> itlaaquillo.
>>
>>   Translation given: Thus the world, the earth, was corrupted; for
>> niter
>> spread; [the soil] grew sterile.  No longer could our foodstuffs be
>> produced; likewise no longer were their fruits good.
>>
>>    I have a question and a comment:
>>
>>   1) first, the comment: on checking the facsimile of the Psalmodia,
I
>> found that the modern book contains a typographical error; the word is
>> "tonacaiutl", not "tonacauitl".  Further, the 'our' in the English
>> '...our
>> foodstuffs...' translation is probably related to the initial "to-",

>> based
>> on the assumption that it is a first person plural possessive.  But
>> with
>> the correct spelling -- and regularized to "tonacayotl" -- it is
>> obvious
>> that it involves the nominalization of "to:na" embedded in "-yotl".
>> And the absolutive ending made the possessive interpretation impossible
>> anyway.
>>
>>   2) second, the question:  I assume that "otequixquiquiz" is the
>> preterit
>> of "tequixquiquiza", with the noun "tequixquitl" embedded in the verb
>> "quiza".  I had assumed that the Spanish borrowing "tequexquite" was
a
>> widely used vocabulary item in Mexican Spanish, but I have just
>> multiple
>> evidence to the contrary.
>>
>>   Can someone enlighten me on this issue?
>>
>>   As an additional bonus, I would like some helpful comment on the
>> morphological composition of the original Nahuatl noun "tequixquitl".
>> --My dubits are concerned with whether "-quixtia" ever nominalizes like
>> this.
>>
>> Tlazohcamatihtzin,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> p.s.  Note -- Dr. Cecilio A. Robelo, _Diccionario de Aztequismos: o sea
>> jardin de las raices aztecas, no date, Mexico, DF
>>
>>  p. 262: tequesquite. -- (te-quix=quitl: tetl, piedra; quixquitl,
>> brotante.  eflorescente; derivado de quiza, salir espontaneamente:
>> "Piedra que sale por si' sola, eflorescente"). Eflorescencias salinas
>> naturales, formadas de sesquicarbonato de soda y de cloruro de sodio.
>>
>> [footnote to above] El tequesquite, del que haci'an mucho useo los
>> mexicanos, tiene hoy todavi'a muchos uusos en la industria y en la
>> cocina.
>> Hay de cuatro clases: espumilla, confitillo, cascarilla y polvillo.
>> Las dos primeras especies, que son las mejores, se forman de la agua
>> detenida en pequen~os pozos cuando baja o refluye la laguna de Texcoco.
>> Cuando se avapora el li'quido bajo la influencia de los rayos solares,
>> queda un sedimento confusamente cristalizado.  Las otras dos especies,
>
>> que
>> son menos estimadas, son las eflorescencias producidas espontaneamente
>
>> en
>> el suelo.  Se emplea el tequesquite en la colada de los lienzos, y
>> jaboneros lo usan como alcalino para saponificacio'n de las grasas.
>>
>>
>
>