Chimalpahin

[Rikke Marie Olsen]

Dear Jose

About cecenteotlatoca. I would analyze it cè-cen-te-ò-tla-toca. I think the
first cè is distributive. Centetl means simply one. ò is the root for road.
Tla is the absolutive suffix, which is still attached because nahauspeakers
dislike short words. Toca is the verb and means follow. All in all You have
an incorporated noun (or two if You count centetl, which is actually a
numeral, but acts like a noun here because of tetl).
I would translate it: they follow different paths or routes. I haven't
looked at the rest of the sentence, so should probably be ajusted a bit.

Best regards,
Rikke Marie Olsen, 
Student at the Departement of Native American Language and Culture, 
University of Copenhagen.


-----Original Message-----
From: Nahua language and culture discussion [mailto:NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU]
On Behalf Of José Rabasa
Sent: 26. maj 2005 04:11
To: NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: Chimalpahin

Dear Listeros:

A group of us in the Bay Area have a Nahuatl workshop in which we
have been reading Chimalpahin's Diario.  We found the following
passage a bit difficult to sort out. It comes from that section in
which Chimalpahin compares Nahuatl and European language on eclipses.
The passage reads:

"ynic otlatoca ynic momamallacachotihui ynic mopapanahuitihui ynic
cecenteotlatoca, ynic yzqui tlanepanoltitimani ylhuicame" (Rafael
Tena's edition p. 228).

We are particularly undecided on how to read cecenteotlatoca.
Because of the earlier otlatoca (avanzar, andar) we thought that it
could be a combination of cecentetl and otlatoca but cecentl as an
adjetive could not modify a verb.  The other option would be to read
cecen and teotlatoca (teotl.tlatoa.ca), which would translate as
"each one is god talk." This gets particularly heady given that the
European talk on the planets would amount to theology rather than
science, etc. etc., etc. Is this a pun? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jose Rabasa