mohottah

[John Sullivan, Ph.D.]

Michael,
	If I want to reduplicate the stem of quiahci, the first syllable that contains elements of the stem is ah, so the a is reduplicated. If I want to reduplicate the stem of nicahci, the first syllable containing elements of the stem is cah, right? So in this case the ca is reduplicated. This only happens with transitive verbs whose stem begins in a vowel, and when the subject is ni or ti (hence, the initial sequence nic or tic). Cool, huh?
John

On May 12, 2010, at 12:06 PM, Michael McCafferty wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> John:
> 
> I'm wondering about number 4. I don't get the second -c-.
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
>> 
>> 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
>>> 
>>> Sample disclaimer text
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Nahuatl mailing list
>>> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
>>> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Nahuatl mailing list
> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl

_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl