conditional tense

[idiez at MAC.COM]

Listeros,
        A note on the use of the "conditional tense", -zquia, in modern 
náhuatl. I think people now tend to call it the "unfulfilled action" 
tense. Well it refers to unfulfilled action in two ways:
1. Unfulfulled in the sense that the action has not yet been fulfilled: 
nimaltizquia pampa nizoquiyoh = I should bathe because I'm dirty.
2. Unfulfilled in the sense that there was an intention to fulfill it, 
but something happened to interrupt the process: nimaltizquia pero 
tlanqui atl. = I was going to bathe, but the water ran out.
3. And then there is the compound form with "-tozquia", which means 
"should have done something": nimaltihtozquia quemman oncayaya atl. = I 
should have bathed when there was water.
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.
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