Teuctli

[Frances Karttunen]

The Nahuatl word teuctli--phonetically bisyllabic  [te:kw.tli] and  
more often than not in older Nahuatl texts misleadingly written  
"tecuhtli"--means 'lord, ruler' and is found in many compounds such  
as yohualteuctli, mictlanteuctli, etc.  (Joe can provide a list if  
there is interest.)  In some compounds the stem loses the rounding of  
the final consonant, and it's just tec-, as in tecpan [te:kpan]  
'palace;  'where the ruler is located' and tecpillotl [te:kpillo:tl]  
'nobility, good breeding.'

There is a pervasive pan-Mesoamerican myth of local heros withdrawing  
into hills/mountains to sleep until such time as they sally forth to  
aid their people. This is true of the volcanic cone near Milpa Alta  
known as Teuctli.

In Milpa Alta the word has bifurcated, with the original form  
retaining its meaning of 'lord' and a spelling pronunciation based on  
tecuhtli having taken on the meaning of 'boss.'

Fran
_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl