Teuctli

[Michael McCafferty]

Quoting "John Sullivan, Ph.D." <idiez at mac.com>:

> Sorry for the late comment on this topic. In Northern Veracruz
> Nahuatl, we also have "tecohtli", "dueño", and "itecoh", "su dueño".
> But I can't see how this could be a spelling pronunciation. The
> Huasteca is peripheral to the Central Mexican writing tradition, and
> I just can't see literacy as having had any significant impact on
> speech in this area. Also, in this region a syllable final "w" sounds
>  very much like an "h", perhaps a bit more prolonged. In
> Tamazunchale,  only a few hours away, the sound is still pretty much
> like the "h",  but the rounding is perceptible.
> John


It's hard to say, John, what is going on, but it could be in "tecohtli" 
a simple case of contraction, that is, a contraction of the original 
/-kw-/ of the stem /te:kw-/ 'lord' to [-ko(h-)] at the spoken level. We 
see such a thing, for example, in Miami-Illinois, an Algonquian 
language, where, say, phonemic /ceenkwihtanki/ 'it thunder-flows' 
(i.e., 'it is a waterfall') can go to phonetic [ceenkohtangi]. ( c "ch")

Michael


>
> On Oct 9, 2007, at 1:19 PM, Frances Karttunen wrote:
>
>>
>> On Oct 9, 2007, at 12:29 PM, David Wright wrote:
>>
>>> Regarding Fran's statement "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'": In the cassettes prepared by José Concepción
>>> Flores Arce ("El Maestro Xochime") for teaching Nahuatl, I hear
>>> [te:ku?tli].
>>
>> In my experience with M.A. Nahuatl, the labialized [kw] has
>> simplified to [w], so te:uctli is pronounced [te:wtli] (the name of
>> the local sacred mountain).  The 'boss, bureaucrat' word derived
>> from the spelling pronunciation is pronounced [te:kohtli] with the
>> [h] here representing the local pronunciation of the glottal stop.
>> But the o/u distinction being nonsignificant in most varieties of
>> spoken Nahuatl, including M.A. as I know it, it might be pronounced
>> more like [te:kuhtli].
>>
>>
>>> In the accompanying book, in the vocabulary list, I find
>>> "tecu'tli, (sust.) dirigente, gobernante." I also see the root
>>> with the kw > k shift in the word "tecpampa, (sust.) palacio,
>>> oficina." El Maestro Xochime is from Milpa Alta (in southeastern
>>> Mexico City). I assume that the unusual (for a native speaker)
>>> pronunciation [te:ku?tli] is the result of influence from Mexico
>>> City academics of the Garibay school. Fran (or others): do you
>>> have any information or comments on this?
>>
>> It might well be.  I just think of it as spelling pronunciation.
>> The spelling "tecuhtli" managed to mislead Thelma Sullivan, who
>> used the word in her Compendio as an example of how the -tli form
>> of the absolutive suffix is used after saltillo (glottal stop).
>> Perhaps this was inherited from her teacher, who was none other
>> than Garibay.
>>
>>
>> Fran
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>
>




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