translation

[John F. Schwaller]

At 06:29 AM 6/25/2004, you wrote:
>There is a basic stem in Nahuatl /xo:-/ that means 'green'. It does appear in
>a non-reduplicative form, as in /xo:tl/ 'a green thing',

[stuff cut out]


>What the foregoing implies is that there is a noun stem in the form of /xoc-/
>(/c/ = /k/) that means 'green'. Of course, this means that this stem is either
>homophonous with or identical to the stem for 'pot', /xoc-/. At the same time,
>maybe that -c- can be explained another way. Ahmo nicmati.


Basically I would posit the following [admitting that I am not an expert in
these aspects]: we do not have a stem /xoc-/ meaning "green" because we
have a stem /xo:-/ meaning "green."  Your construction analysis is
absolutely correct.  As you rightly point out the /-c-/ forms what we
consider an adjective although in fact a form of the preterite, so there is
a possibility that we could back form a noun out of the "adjective" but
since we already have a perfectly good noun, why bother?  I think the
critical point in the analysis is the jump from /xoxo:-/ to
/xoxoc-/.  That's where I got lost.





John F. Schwaller
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean
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