chiya, tlachiya, tlachilia

[Jesse Lovegren]

Piyali list,

That is an interesting discussion and a helpful example. Since we're on the
topic....
By coincidence I was just writing in my dissertation and came to notice
similar things about a verb tS`i in Mungbam([mij]; Cameroon).

intransitively: to be alive, to be conscious
transitively: to look, to watch
as an aspectual auxiliary: to do something after waiting

In trying to find a decent neo-latin label for this latter use (i
eventually decided on "morative perfective"), I happened to find this entry
for a verb *degere* in Latin

dego, degere, degi, -  V  INTRANS   [XXXCO]
spend/bide one's time in; wait; remain alive, live on, endure; continue;
dego, degere, degi, -  V  TRANS   [XXXCO]
spend/pass (time); spend/bide one's time in; carry on, wage; conduct away?;


Cheers,

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 1:53 PM, John Sullivan <idiez at me.com> wrote:

> Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
>         Like most non-native speakers, I have always wondered how we get
> from chiya, nic., "to wait for s.o. or s.t." to tlachiya, ni., "to
> observe". Now I understand. Many cultures (and religions) have both a
> transitive and an intransitive version of "to wait". The transitive version
> is part of daily life, "Nimitzchiyaz tianquizco", "I'll wait for you at the
> market". The instransitive "to wait", is used in spiritual discourse. To
> "wait" without an object is to be conscious, aware of everything around you
> (both what is seen and what is unseen). In everyday English we say the
> cougar "lies in wait", aware of everything (especially of some tender
> morsel that might wander into its field of experience), yet focusing on
> nothing. In Modern Nahuatl, "tlachixtoc", literally means, "to lay in
> wait", and more colloquially it means "to be awake, conscious, alive." Here
> chiya is made intransitive using the tla- prefix, and the -toc (-t(i)-o-c)
> turns the action into a state.
>         And then we have tlachilia, nic., to examine or analyze s.o. or
> s.t. This is tlachiya + lia (applicative). So the idea is to be aware,
> conscious, (or laying in wait) with respect to s.o. or s.t.
>         Again, and as always, grammar as a window into worldview, culture,
> the soul.
> John
>
> John Sullivan, Ph.D.
> Research Scholar in Nahuatl Studies and
> Academic Director of the Yale-IDIEZ Nahuatl Language Institute
> Yale University
> 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
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>
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-- 
Jesse Lovegren
University at Buffalo
Department of Linguistics
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office +1 716 645 0114
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