on

[John Sullivan]

Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
	There was an interesting post on the totlahtol listserv yesterday. Moises Bautista, a native speaker from the Huasteca, remarked that the "on" verbal directional prefix softens a statement or command. In effect this is one of the reverential functions. We all know that many Classical and Modern variants use "on-" for this purpose, but when I've seen it, it has been in conjunction with the other verbal reverential mechanisms: 1. reflexive prefix + causative or benefactive suffix; 2. -tzinoa. Huastecan Nahuatl never uses -tzinoa, and there is only one example of the reflexive prefix +  benefactive suffix. At IDIEZ we have described the various function of "on-" in Huastecan Nahuatl, but reverentiality has never been one of them. More soon.....
John
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