mohottah

[Campbell, R. Joe]

Ben,

   I agree with Michael's and John's first comments, so mine are just additive.

   At the beginning, I (like probably more than a few others) focused 
my attention on the fact that the reduplication was operating on the 
'o' of the prefix rather than expected initial vowel of the stem.  But 
weren't you concerned with the 'h' itself?

   My first lesson on this was forty years ago and it remains my iconic 
image of an explanation for some facts about reduplication.  One of my 
early native speaker teachers was telling me that 'I hop' was 
"nitzicuini" (here I'm taking the liberty of converting the modern 
regional form to one that corresponds to the older more generally known 
form).  She commented that you could also say "nitzitzicuini" or 
"nitzihtzicuini".  I probably wrinkled my brow (unnecessary nowadays) 
and asked what the difference was.  She stood up and hopped several 
times in place and said, 'that's "nitzitzicuini"' (I take the further 
liberty of translating into English.)  And then she hopped around from 
one place to another and grinned, 'that's "nitzihtzicuini"'.
   So when I think about the 'h' occurring with reduplication meaning 
"distributive" in either time or space (or even people), I can still 
see her hopping up and down or doing an imitation of jumping over one 
mud puddle and then another.  So the 'h' involves separate events and 
the lack of it involves a prolonged event (I know that I'm 
over-generalizing, but I also know that everyone has a ready copy of 
Andrews.)

   Back to the reduplication of the 'o'...  As I was driving this 
morning, I asked my primary consultant for a better way to say what I 
thought was going on than what I then explained.  We failed to 
formalize it better, so here it is.  People who concern themselves with 
theory would very likely find an interesting topic here, but you don't 
have to be concerned with theory to blink and say, "I haven't found 
anything like that in Nahuatl before!".
   Reduplication applies to the first vowel *of the stem* (and any 
preceding consonants), but in the case of <mo-itta>, where the /i/ is 
elided by the preceding /o/, there is no first vowel remaining in the 
stem to undergo reduplication.  So the /o/ (culprit of the elision) 
takes over for its victim (i.e., /i/) and reduplicates.

Iztayohmeh,

Joe




Quoting "Leeming, Ben" <b.leeming at rivers.org>:

> 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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