mohottah

[Michael McCafferty]

Ben,

As you known, in Nahuatl, the reduplicated, or frequentive, verb 
prefixes generally take these forms:

1) consonant + short vowel   titlacuacua:
2) consonant + long vowel    ancho:cho:ca
3) consonant + vowel + glottal stop   pahpa:qui

Number three is what is going on here, but, as John explains, the /o/ 
of motta is the only element that undergoes reduplication, from /o/ to 
/o/ + glottal stop, here represented by orthographic "h".

Michael




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

> Piyali Ben,
> 	You know that when mo- and itta come together, the o wins out over
> the i because although both are short, the o is stronger than the i.
> So we get motta, which you will see all the time in texts. Now, when
> it comes time to reduplicate, you reduplicate the new word, motta,
> which is now understood to be m-otta, and you get m-ohotta.
> 	This kind of re-analyzed reduplication happens in the Huasteca too. So:
> 1. ahci, nic. to touch s.o. or s.t.
> 2. aahci, nic. to touch s.t. after all
> 3. Carlos quiaahci. Carlos touches it after all
> 4. Nicacahci. I touch it after all.
> John
>
> On May 12, 2010, at 9:07 AM, Leeming, Ben wrote:
>
>> Piyali listeros,
>>
>> Can anyone explain to me the process by which mo+(i)ttah (they look
>> at each other, see themselves) becomes mohottah?
>>
>> On p. 90 of Andrews? Workbook (1975 ed.), Ex. 38A, no. 3 he writes:
>> Nepanotl mohottah, and then on p. 195 gives the translation ?They
>> are staring at one another mutually; i.e., They are staring at one
>> another.?  On p. 445 of the text, in the Vocabulary under (iTTA) he
>> has ?MO-(iTTA) = to look at oneself, to see oneself.?  This is close
>> to but not identical with mohottah.
>>
>> I have this sinking feeling that it?s something really obvious, but
>> for whatever reason I can?t account for that first h!!
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Ben
>>
>> Ben Leeming
>> Chair, History Department
>> The Rivers School
>> Weston, MA 02493
>> (781) 235-9300
>>
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>



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