nahuatl translation

[Michael McCafferty]

Quoting Carlos Santamarina <carlossn at UI.BOE.ES>:

>   Can anybody help me?
> I'm trying to traduce a sentence from the Anales de Cuauhtitlan.
> Here is, with de translation of Primo Feliciano Velázquez (UNAM, 1992):
>
> auh in oacic niman Mizoc, ipan iniyacapepech oncan yoltlacatl macehualli
> "Al llegar, se sangró en su cama de pajas, de donde tuvo vida una
> persona plebeya"
>
Unfortunately my Spanish is a million light years behind my Nahuatl, so I
don't know what "pajas" means in "cama de pajas". However, fortunately (for
me), you have provided the Nahuatl. :-)

Your "iniyacapepech" is "in iyacapepech," actually two words written as one:

"in" is "in, and

iyacapepech is

|i:-| 'his/her'
|yaca-| 'nose' but also 'angle' and 'point'
|-pe(:)(h)-| reduplication on
|-pech| 'flat on the surface' <- pechoa 'to make something flat' and pechahui
        'to become flat' -> tlapechtli 'bed', i.e, 'something flat'

In English? "his/her angled bed, pointed bed" (?) I don't know. I've never
seen a yacapepechtli. :-)

The reduplication of the -pech implies an extensive flat area or "very flat".
The text, of course, does not indicate whether the vowel is short or long or
if a glottal stop follows the vowel in the reduplication.


is for me, at least, challenging in that after removing the possessive
singular third person prefex i- meaning 'his/her', and the final stem, -pech,
with the reduplicated pe(:)(h)-, which is the "cama" part, what's left is
not "yaca(tl)" meaning "nose, point, angle" but rather "niyaca-". I don't know
what a "niyaca-" is. -pech is from the verb pechahui 'to become flat' and
pechoa 'to make something flat'. The reduplicated prefix on -pech signifies
probably "very"..."very flat," "extensively flat".

> I have problems with yacapepech (no 'zacapepech'), perhaps from yacatl
> (nose or tip?) and pepechtli (bed or so)...
>
>
Saludos,
Michael




    Thank you very much.
> Carlos Santamarina <carlossn at diploma.com> carlossn at ui.boe.es
>
>