nitah

[John Sullivan]

Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
	Here’s a fun one. “nitah”, is an expression of surprise or astonishment used in Modern Huastecan Nahuatl. Sometimes used in the expression, “nitah totiotzin (noteotzin).”
1. “nitah” is actually a shortened form of the Mexican Spanish “nanita,” “mamita,” referring to the Virgin Mary
2. “nanita” comes from the Nahuatl “nantli” plus the Spanish diminutive “-ita”
3. But as we all know, Mexican Spanish has taken the Spanish diminutive and used it to substitute for the Nahuatl diminutive-honorific “-tzin.”
	How that for (de)colonial morphology? And see, I’m actually using some up-to-date theoretical terminology.
John
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