Tecuhtli, teuctli, tekwtli

[David Wright]

Dear Ian:

Nice site. I think there are some phonetic problems with the four words containing the morpheme tecuh(tli) ("Mictlantecuhtli", "Tlaltecuhtli" and "Moctezuma"). The way the first two are spelled, as I (think I) understand it, reflects one of the imprecisions of colonial Nahuatl othography. There's really no /u/ in 16th century central Nahuatl except as an allophone of /o/, but in "tecuhtli" this allophone is not represented. The digraphs "cu", "qu" and "uc", when they appear in colonial texts, all represent a consonant, not a syllable. This phoneme is a sort of /k/ pronounced with rounded lips, which can be written phonetically as /kw/ (superscript w). Thus "tecuhtli" (also spelled "teuctli" in many sources), is really /tekwtli/ (superscript w). The "h" in "tecuhtli" adds to the confusion. It's probably there because the digraphs "hu" and "uh" were used to write the semiconsonant /w/, which puts the lips in the same position as /kw/, ignoring what's going on behind them.

Solution? It would be less confusing to spell these words as Mictlanteuctli, Tlalteuctli and Moteuczoma. These forms are found in colonial and modern literature, so they don't break with the traditional orthography you use in the other words. "Moctezuma" can be scrapped, both in the written and the audio files, since it's not a Nahuatl word, just a loan from Nahuatl to Castillian.

There are people on this list that know more about Nahuatl phonology than I do; if you're reading this, please correct me if I'm wrong (or too confident on a topic as hypothetical as 16th century pronunciation; all of the people who wrote the texts are dead and unavailable for consultation).

Peace,

David Wright
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