On a:l- as in a:ltepe:tl

[David Wright]

The same thought crossed my mind, Gordon, intertwined with the memory of
Coatlichan, (Coatl Ichan), "the snake his house" ("house of the snake"),
often written as one word but evidently two, because of the first element
conserving its absolutive prefix.

As for altepetl, together with the two examples you provide of /tl/ + /t/ >
/lt/, it looks like we can add this to our list of regular (albeit scarce)
morphophonological changes. Andrews lists most of these changes, but I think
he missed this one. I would be most grateful if you could provide documental
references for Xihuiltemoc and Ihuiltemoc, to nail this down. One word
doesn't make a rule, but with three I think it's worth going for. I'd like
to add this to the section on morphophonology in the second edition of my
book Lectura del Náhuatl. I promise to cite your post. (The first edition
has a few citations of Nahuat-l posts too). Listeros: what do you think?

Saludos,

David

-----Mensaje original-----
De: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
En nombre de Gordon Whittaker
Enviado el: viernes, 21 de agosto de 2009 02:36 a.m.
Para: nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
Asunto: [Nahuat-l] On a:l- as in a:ltepe:tl

Hi everyone,

I noticed that the question of Nahuatl terms beginning with a:l- 'water' has
come up. This is probably a remnant of a juxtaposition of a:tl
(freestanding) with a second term, either a two-part nominal phrase such as
(in) a:tl (in) tepe:tl 'water and mountain', that is, 'community', etc., or
an original sequence of other nature (noun + verb-derived locative), as in a
number of toponyms.

Cf. personal names such as <Xihuiltemoc> (also Xihuitltemoc>)and
<Ihuiltemoc> (also <Ihuitltemoc>).

Best,
Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gordon Whittaker
Professor
Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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