On the birth name of Do=?iso-8859-1?Q?=F1a_?=Marina

[Frances Karttunen]

The "Tenepal" originated with the Nahua historian Chimalpahin.

Please see my essay "Rethinking Malinche" in Indian Women of Early  
Mexico, edited by Schroeder, Wood, and Haskett, University of  
Oklahoma Press 1997.  In particular, see p. 302 and 311-12.

This essay is available as a podcast through nuestrafamiliaunida.com/ 
podcast/mujer.html

It should also be available in two parts at:

www.podcast-directory.co.uk/.../rethinking-malinche-part-01-by-dr- 
frances- karttunen-ph-d-nfu-josephpuentes-com-3325343.html

ip.podcast-directory.co.uk/.../rethinking-malinche-part-02-by-dr- 
frances- karttunen-ph-d-nfu-josephpuentes-com-3325344.html

Fran Karttunen


On Mar 26, 2013, at 11:12 AM, Kier Salmon wrote:

> I just ran into something that revived a question I had years ago.
>
> In many places it is asserted that the slave who became an  
> interpreter, Doña Marina, was named "Malinalli." by her parents  
> because she "born on that day."
>
> In so far as I have seen, she would have had a number prefix to the  
> name if that were so… Eyi-Mallinalli, frex.
> I've always considered that to be a backward false etymology.   
> Marina would have been pronounced (by her and all nahuatl  
> speakers), Malina.  This being a word without meaning, they would  
> have naturally used the word closest in sound to it.
>
> Recently I have found a new name attributed to her.  Apparently  
> this happened as far back as 1998, where it was claimed her  
> nickname (or use name) was Tenepal.  I've found "Cypess, Sandra  
> Messinger. La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth  
> Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1991." cited as the origin of this  
> name.  But I don't have access to a research library myself to go  
> hunting down references and finding out if it was mentioned earlier.
>
> And the discussion calls this nickname, supposedly given to her by  
> the father who died when she was a child before she was sold to  
> slavery (I'm having trouble getting my head around these things)  
> "Tenepal" meaning "one who speaks with liveliness."
>
> I look at that and dig through my dictionaries and scratch my  
> head.  Teneh (Karttunen) something sharp, a cutting edge.  suffix - 
> pal "for the sake of,"
> Molina, the closest he gets is "Tenepantla" en medio de otros
>
> But I go back to the "citation" on the wiki page and think… and  
> Americans would mean "sassy" with that.  But in the Nahuatl culture  
> of the conquest, sassy would have been a very bad thing.  It would  
> not have been tolerated in a girl child.  And Sahagún's compilation  
> of the appropriate treatment of children and their discipline does  
> not suggest a "lively" child would meet with approval and a  
> nickname celebrating this fact.
>
> Does anybody know where the new name suggested came from?  And how  
> likely it might be?
> Thank you for your help
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