Chimalpahin

[Henry Kammler]

Hola,

if |cecenteotlatoca| is derived from /tla'toa/ it would rather translate as 
"had talked in reference to their respective gods" (or?)
"god talk" would be /teotlatolli/ with root-final /l/ = *|cecenteotlatolca| 
"each by god talk", I guess.

Regarding short incorporated nominal roots:
compare the following forms:
/o'tlatoka/ = "follow a path"  < /o' -tli/
/âtlakwi/ = "fetch water"  <  /â -tl/

To me this looks like the indefinite object prefix /tla-/ is inserted, 
rather than /tla/ derived from /-tl(i)/. We also find a reduplicated form 
/âtlatlakwi/ (cf. Seler's glossary) "fetch lots of water" ("fetch 
repeatedly"?) which seems to support this. *If* this is the same /tla/, I'm 
not sure.

I think Galen touched upon an important issue: by what processes of 
analysis do we establish our categories (say, "word classes")? Lacking 
alternatives, we do use "traditional" terms rooted in Latin grammar writing 
and established through a long genealogy of Nahuatl scholars. While doing 
so, we should be aware that these terms *may be* crutches rather than 
devices of analysis. As useful as our terminology is, it might blur our 
sight for unexpected phenomena. I wonder in what terms we would talk about 
Nahuatl if it were among the Papuan languages "discovered" 30-40 years ago...

Mâ niwîya
Henry Kammler
Univ. of Frankfurt