pronoun walking eagle

[R. Joe Campbell]

    I don't have a lot against rough translations like "Descending Eagle" 
for general purposes, but people in the Nahuat-l group are focused to some 
degree on how the language works, we could get a little closer by looking, 
not at traditional translations for names, but at the way word formation 
functions in common vocabulary.

    First, Nahuatl lets preterit verb forms function like nouns:

    form               literal           functional meaning

    temictihqui        he killed s.o.    killer
     (I realize that it involves an "act of faith" to classify
     this -qui form as a preterit in "classical" Nahuatl)

    tlaneloh           he stirred s.t.   rower, one who rows

    otemoc             it descended      digested food
                                          (Molina's words, not mine)



    Nouns can be incorporated into verbs as objects:

    ni-naca-cua        I meat-eat

    ti-neuc-namaca     you sell honey or maguey syrup


    Nouns can also be incorporated into verbs in an adverbial function:

    coyo-nehnemi       he walks like a coyote (on all fours)

    nite-ma-quixtia    I extract s.o. (e.g., from danger) [by the hand]

    ti-nech-nacaz-itta you look at me sideways (possibly lovingly),
                       you look at me ear-ly (no matter what time it is)


So, cuauhtemoc is the preterit of temo, modified by cuauhtli (eagle):
  he descended like an eagle, he is a descender in the manner of eagles.

Iztayohmeh,

Joe


On Fri, 20 Oct 2006, ANTHONY APPLEYARD wrote:

>
> In the Nahuatl name Cuauhtemoc = "Descending (= Swooping) Eagle" (an
> emperor), the noun comes first.
>
> Citlalyani
>
>
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