tepi

[campbel at INDIANA.EDU]

   "tepiltzin" (note the -tzin) falls apart in different way from "tepi" (which
doesn't fall apart at all).  "tepi" is a morpheme, so it has no sub-parts, no
constituents.  On the occe maitl, "tepiltzin":

       te          pil(li)         tzin
       someone's   child           endearing diminutive suffix

   With regard to your "a(l(t))-mapitchtli", I doubt that "a:(tl)" combines with
the rest of it in its rarer "al-" form, so it would probably show up as "a-".
In the most common Nahuatl spelling the /ch/ phoneme is spelled "ch" (although
the unitary sound of /ch/ *does* contain a kind of "t").  With the leading
element "cem-", Molina gives both "cemmapichtli" and "cemmapictli":

   cemmapichtli   haze o haz de cosas menudas; manojo, o hace de cosas menudas

   cemmapictli    <lo mesmo es que cemmapichtli>; pun~o o pun~ado assi de cosas
                  largas; como de pajas o yeruas

      cem            ma:(itl)         pi:qui     [patientive noun derivation]
      one, complete  hand             squeeze

   (The "ch" form is a variant which is seen frequently in patientive nouns.)

Joe


Quoting Delia Cosentino <dacosentino at EARTHLINK.NET>:

> Thanks, and just a follow up: is this related to tepilzin at all, i.e.
> suggesting descent or an offspring, or does it have totally separate
> linguistic origins?
> Also, how might people read the name glyph of the stylized stream of water
> grasped by a hand? Something like...(apologies in
> advance)...Al(t)mapitchtli?
>
>