cocoa, etc.

[John Sullivan]

Hey Joe (¿Canin tiyauh huanya nopa piztolah momaco?),
	A few years ago you asked me (already knowing the answer) if I could find a class 3 verb that was put together like “cocoa”: “cocotl” + the inceptive verbing morpheme “-a”. Well since the answer is probably no, I just thought you should know that normally in Chicontepec Nahuatl, a class 3 verb forms the imperfect tense by dropping the final “a” and adding “-yaya”. So we have “nimotlaloa” > “nimotlaloyaya”, “I was running”. The only verb I know of that forms the imperfect without dropping the final “a” is....... you guessed it!: “cocoa”. So it’s “nimococoayaya”, “I was sick.”
	On another note, there’s “nimococoayayaya”, “I was already sick”. And there’s “nimitzchiyayayaya”, “I was already waiting for you”.
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor of Nahua language and culture
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Tacuba 152, int. 43
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
Mexico
Work: +52 (492) 925-3415
Home: +52 (492) 768-6048
Mobile (Mexico): +52 1 (492) 103-0195
Mobile (US): (615) 649-2790
idiez at me.com
www.macehualli.org

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