yomoni, ixyoyomoni; atzcalli

[Gordon Whittaker]

Dear Nahua(tl at lists.famsi.org)tlaca,

I've been trying to find information on a verb and its derivatives that
relates to a glyph in the Nahuatl writing system of the mid-16th century.

The verb is <yomoni> (a spelling for yomo:ni/yo'mo:ni/yo:mo:ni),
approximately 'twitch, itch', among other things.

Related to this is <ixyoyomoni> 'grimace, make faces', composed of i:x-
'face' and what is presumably yo'yomo:ni or yo'yo:mo:ni.

I would be very grateful if someone could let me know if there is any
dialect (or textual) evidence for the shape of the syllables <yo> and
<yoyo> in these two related verbs. In particular, is there any direct
evidence for a short or long vowel, or vowel plus glottal stop/fricative
('/h), in the first syllable of <yomoni>? Has anyone come across the
compound <ixyoyomoni> in a modern dialect? Given the meaning of the
compound, the first syllable of <yoyomoni> is presumably yo'/yoh.

Term 2: Another elusive form is the Florentine Codex's <atzcalli> (a kind
of shell). I presume a compound of a:- 'water', and a verbal element with
subsequent syncope of *tzical-. Has anyone seen or heard evidence for the
length of the initial vowel? Thanks again for any tips.

Best wishes,
Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prof. Dr. Gordon Whittaker
Direktor
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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