applicative a>i

[John Sullivan, Ph.D.]

Listeros,
	I was taught that when transitive verbs ending in -a take the applicative suffix -lia, that final -a of the verb root changes to -i. The more I look at it, the more it seems that what is actually happening is that the transitive form reverts to the intransitive form, ending in -i (which in many cases is not used by itself) before adding the applicative suffix. The following examples are from modern Huastecan Nahuatl.
1. cahui ("to become loose", only attested in mahcauhtoc, "it/they are loose) > cahua, "to leave s.t." > cahuilia, "to leave s.t. for s.o.)
2. tzacui ("to become closed", only attested in tzauctoc, "it is closed") > tzacua, to close/enclose s.t." > tzacuilia, "to get in s.o.ʻs way" or "to prop s.t. up")
3. temi, "for s.t. to fill or swell" > tema, "to empty things out (into a container)" > temilia, "to fill s.t. up"
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor of Nahua language and culture
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Tacuba 152, int. 43
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
Mexico
Work: +52 (492) 925-3415
Fax: +1 (858) 724-3030 (U.S.A.)
Home: +52 (492) 768-6048
Mobile: +52 1 (492) 103-0195
idiez at me.com
www.macehualli.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/nahuat-l/attachments/20100506/75c70e0f/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl