Tlacaelel

[villas]

I used Remi Simeons Nahuatl dictionary for all definitions in this 
e-mail.

Tlaca is the plural of Tlacatl. Tlacatl s. adj. Hombre, noble señor, 
humano.

Tlacatecolotl was the word used by Nahuatl speaking priests to try to 
define the devil, since the mesoamericans had no concept of devil or 
evil for that matter and since tecolotl is owl and it has apparent 
horns, they (the priests) tried to use this image of a horned human, 
hence tlacatecolotl: Devil. Tlacatecolotl is not the nahual form of a 
shaman, it is a spaniard invention.

One should look at other uses of tlacatl, i.e. Tlacateotl, the second 
king of Tlatelolco. Possibly Mangod or something similar to that. 
Tlacatian, place of birth, "patria", etc. Tlacatlacuiloliztli, painter 
of men. Tlacatilitzinoa, birth of a boy. Tlatilizilhuitl, birthday. 
Tlacatiliztli, birth, generation.

So we can see that Tlacatl is linked to the concept of person or human 
as well as a principle of generation or human birth.

El,  adj. on the other hand is used only with possesive, no, mo, i, 
etc, and it means diligent, careful etc and with the neg. anel, i'm 
lazy, amel, you are lazy etc.
on the other hand,
  elele! interj. expresses suffering: ay!, ay!
elleli, afliction, pain.
elli, liver.


I would construct Tlacaelel to mean Person who generates suffering. (of 
the other, the enemy, etc).

Marcos


On Mar 15, 2006, at 2:13 PM, Frances Karttunen wrote:

>>
>>  On the surface, though, it would seem to be more Liver Man based on 
>> tlacatl and elli, with reduplication of the -el- of liver.
>>
>>
>
> But shouldn't we take into account that in attributive constructions 
> like this, the second element is the head, and the first element is 
> the modifier?
>
> Cf. tla:catecolo:tl  'a human sort of owl' (an owl that is not really 
> a simple owl but the companion animal or animal manifestation of a 
> human shaman)
>
> So tla:ca- would be 'a human sort of……'
>
> And the "elel" part would be the head of the construction.
>
> Hence a human sort of "elel," whatever an "elel" might be. (I assume 
> it's actually e:lel)
>
> e:lel- (vowel of the first syllable long) appears in the verbs 
> e:lelahci and e:lelqui:za, both having to do with suffering.  Oddly 
> enough, a derivation from e:lelqui:za is causative e:lelqui:xtia: 'to 
> cause someone to relax' or even 'to entertain someone.'
>
> e:l- is 'liver,' which was considered by the Nahuah to be the bodily 
> seat of strong emotions (whereas the heart, yo:l-, was considered the 
> seat of volition). Getting delivered (qui:xtia:) from strong emotions 
> would certainly be a way to get into a state of relaxation.
>
> How one gets from e:l to e:lel is a morphological mystery.
>
> Joe, could you favor us with a list of e:l- and e:lel attestions?
>