altepetl

[zorrah at ATT.NET]

I think I just realized the reason for a:tl (water) + tepe:tl (hill) = a:ltepe:tl, by looking at another example:
The al: looks (or rather sounds) more like a stem ending as in the example:
tla:lli + tohpohlli = tla:ltohpolli 'terrace'

The weird thing, or perhaps magical thing about the connection is that it acts more like chemistry rather than "assimilation" or what ever term they give it.
tlazohcamati
citlalin xochime






-------------- Original message from ANTHONY APPLEYARD <a.appleyard at BTINTERNET.COM>: --------------


> --- zorrah at ATT.NET wrote:
> > Maybe I didn’t understand the lesson in the “Chimalpahin” thread, but
> > can someone please clarify why "altepetl" does not follow the general
> > assimilation patterns as these other examples do:
> > General Assimilation Examples:
> > 1) na:huatl + tlahto:lli (word, language) = na:huallahto:lli
> > 'Nahuatl language'
> > 2) a:tl + tla:lli (earth) = a:tla:lli 'irrigated land'
> > 3) a:tl + tlapechtli (bed) = a:tlape:chtli 'slope, side of a gully'
> > Also, in examples 2 and 3, is it the presence of the long vowel “a:”
> > stem that is left after the -tl is dropped, only to be confronted
> > with a twin “absolutive suffix-looking tl-” (of course the tl- of
> > tla:lli or tlape:chtli is NOT absolutive)
> >
> > Looking at altepetl, is it the strong “a:” stem again, who this time
> > will accept a half-image or mirror-image of its former self?
> >
> > 4) a:tl (water) + tepe:tl (hill) = a:ltepe:tl (town, pueblo)
> > What is going on here?
> > citlalin xochime
>
> (4) A town needs water for irrigation and a hill to keep out of floods.
> Thus the components have equal status and the compound is a dvandva.
> The basic meaning is "it is water (and) it is a hill", "it is water and
> a hill", originally two words, and people gradually started letting
> them run together into one; and the sequence -tlt- became -lt-.
>
> (1) na:huatl + tlahto:lli is also a dvandva: "it is something
> clear-sounding (and) it is a language", became na:huallahto:lli ; the
> sequence -tltl- became -ll-.
>
> 2) a:tl + tla:lli (earth) = a:tla:lli 'irrigated land', as it is (a
> sort of) land, but it is not (a sort of) water: it is an ordinary
> compound, not a dvandva.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Citltlyani
>
> Some languages have next to no assimilation of adjacent sounds;
> some langages have enough assimilation to keep a shipload of Borg busy.
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