Nahuatl Word 5

[Michael Mccafferty]

I think what Fran says is logical, but I don't think that *tlatlalaquilli
is what Molina intended to write.. What I think is the scribographical
error (Joe, have you been reading too much of that new-fangled Andrew's
malarky?). Well, I think the only thing Molina did was an l.

I think the word should actually be tlatlallanaquilli.

What this is is rare but attested embedding of a postposition inside a
verb, i.e., -tlal- 'earth' plus tlan 'towards'. There's a case like this
in the Florentine: amotetechacia 'y'all's (presents) for approaching
someone'. This is a verb-derived instrumental phrase, where -tetechaci- is
the verb and tech is the embedded postposition.

Michael


On Mon, 16 Feb 2004, Frances Karttunen wrote:

> on 2/15/04 10:47 PM, r. joe campbell at campbel at INDIANA.EDU wrote:
>
> > I have never lost my awe of the work that Molina did in his three
> > dictionaries.  Nevertheless, there are a few scribo (scribographical??)
> > errors to be found.  I wanted to share this one with you from 1571, S/N,
> > f55v2.  His definition is "enterrado"; how does the following word mean
> > this?  And, of course, what is the error?  >8-)
> >
> > tlatlalanaquilli
> >
> > Joe
> >
>
>
> An extraneous -an- has insinuated itself into the verb tla:l-aquia: <
> tl:al-li 'earth' and aquia: 'to insert something' < aqui 'to enter, to fit
> in'
>
>
>