mohottah

[Michael McCafferty]

John,

Epenthesis is the addition of a consonant or a vowel to a word, usually 
inside the word. It's a common linguistic phenomenon in languages 
around the world.

In Miami-Illinois, an Algonquian language, we see it in addition /a/ in 
the pronunciation of the French name François: Fr. /frãswa/ ->  M-I 
/palanswa/.  The French consonant cluster /fr/ was difficult for 
Miami-Illinois speakers.

In English you see consonant epenthesis for example in the 
pronunciation /warmpth/ for /warmth/ ("warmth"). I do that 
thoughtlessly.

Seems as if epenthesis aids in vocalizing.

I can't say what the occurrence of epenthesis is in Nahuatl, but it
we might look for Nahuatl vowel epenthesis (called--grimace--"anaptyxis")
in Spanish loan words with consonant clusters Nahuatl resists.

Michael

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

> Michael,
> 	Ok, I don?t know what epenthetic means. Can you explain the term?
> And does this phenomenon occur in other situations in Nahuatl?
> John
> On May 12, 2010, at 5:59 PM, Michael McCafferty wrote:
>
>> Hi, John,
>>
>> You know, my first (gut?) feeling about this was that that -c- was
>> epenthetic, not resulting from reduplication.
>>
>> Yes, this is cool, and...strange.
>>
>> */ni-k-aa?si/ -> /ni-ka-k-a?si/
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> Quoting "John Sullivan, Ph.D." <idiez at me.com>:
>>
>>> 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
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
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>




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