Tecuhtli, teuctli, tekwtli

[Michael McCafferty]

Quoting David Wright <dcwright at PRODIGY.NET.MX>:

> 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.

I haven't had the time yet to look at your site, but
Dave has made some excellent points, Ian. The only thing I would add is vowel
length. Since vowel length is phonemic in Nahuatl, Dave's phonemic /tekwtli/ is
actually /te:kwtli/, where the digraphs /kw/ and /tl/ are actually unit
phonemes (and thus in actual, "vigorous" linguistic transcription would each be
represented by a single symbol, in the first case by a k with superscript w and
in the second case by a Greek lambda.

>
> 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.

All good points.

Michael