Nahuatl p ~ w alternation

[Gordon Whittaker]

Dear Nahuatlatoque,

I am rather curious about a consonant fluctuation in two Nahuatl terms --
pa:nitl 'banner' and copilli 'tapering cap'. Pa:nitl has the rare variant
hua:nitl, seen in the name of a Postconquest ruler of Tenochtitlan. And
Cohuil is a rare variant of Copil, the name of a migration-period leader,
in the Cronica Mexicana. Both sources are impeccable, so there is no
reason for us to assume scribal error.

Do any of you know of other instances of such a fluctuation within a
dialect, or of a p:w correspondence between dialects? Perhaps Fran and Joe
have come across a further example or two in their databases.

Thanks for any tips on this.

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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