adjectives & xoxopeualiztli

[Frances Karttunen]

on 7/28/04 4:19 PM, rick dosan at rich_photos at YAHOO.COM wrote:

> Ueli is an adjective, and it could mean -good or posible.

Huel(i) is a verb meaning 'to be able to.'

Huel has the sense "possible," and it also serves as an intensifier, meaning
'very.'

Hueliyoh is a derived noun meaning someone or something invested with the
quality of possibility or ability, hence someone or something powerful.


> How flexible can certain adjectives be read as "to be" (ie, to be good), as if
they had a connection to verbs?

There is a preterite-as-present verb cah that can express 'to be' overtly,
but for the most part in Nahuatl 'to be' is unexpressed (as in Russian, by
the way).

As for adjectives, a case can be made that prior to calquing on Spanish
constructions Nahuatl had no distinct class of adjectives.


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