ordinal numbers

[idiez at MAC.COM]

Listeros,
        A while ago I sent a message asking if anyone knew how to do ordinal 
numbers in some variant of Modern Nahuatl. Well, today I found out how 
to do it. Since the learning process was interesting I'll start from 
the beginning.
        We were having a discussion in the native speakers' class, and Angel, 
who is from Veracruz, said to another student, "Xicompohui.", which he 
said means, "Do it again", or "Repeat that action." Eliazar, who is 
from Hidalgo, said that in his town, you say, "Xiconpahui." This is ok, 
because in many cases in Veracruz, an "a" before the round consonant 
"hu", is pronounced as or becomes an "o". So we analyzed the word, and 
we got:
ome (two) + pa (times) = ompa (twice).
ompa + huia (applicative suffix) =  ompahuia, nic. (to apply s.t. 
twice, to do s.t twice)
        Then the kids remembered (after two years of my asking them), the 
ordinal numbers:
achtohui (for both regions), first
ompohui/ompahui, second
expohui/expahui, third
nauhpohui/nauhpahui, fourth
macuilpohui/macuilpahui, quinto
etc., etc.,
	
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
Unidad Académica de Idiomas
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Director
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
Tacuba 152, int. 47
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
México
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