Nahuatl Digest, Vol 179, Issue 1

[Leeming, Ben]

A couple of ideas from the New England contingent:

I definitely agree that "sa" is really "za".  Initially I was thinking "zahua" as in "to fast"...but then the "tlalco" doesn't quite work.  I started working with Michael's "-huah" (preterit agentive noun of possession suffix) and then may have hit on something.  What if that "coz" or even "coza" has to do with "yellow", and "tlalcozahua" is something like "owner of yellow earth"?  But there's that "a" after "coz"...

There's also the "coz" of "co:ztli" (necklace).  The original post's author didn't indicate vowel length so this might be possible.  But then there's that "a" of "coza" again...  I did find "cozahuiya" (to turn yellow).  Could this shorten to give us "coza"?

How about this?  Karttunen has an entry for "cozehua" which she defines as "to make something turn yellow" (which supports my "coztic" theory).  Perhaps "tlalcozahua" is really "tlalcozehua" and means "to make (the) earth turn yellow".

I guess I would ask the original post's author for some context.  What is the source? Can you give us some more of the passage?  Is there any hint at vowel length?

What do others think?

Ben

Ben Leeming
Chair, History Department
The Rivers School
Weston, MA 02493
(781) 235-9300




On 6/1/10 4:10 PM, "Michael McCafferty" <mmccaffe at indiana.edu> wrote:

Quoting vazquezdiaz at aol.com:

>
>
>
>
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> Please help me out with the meaning of the word  TLALCOSAHUA
>
>


Sounds like 'earth-ferret-haver'

tla:l-co:zah-huah

someone who has/owns an 'earth-ferret'...whatever that is. :-)

Michael




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