centlacnepal

[Leeming, Ben]

Michael, thank you. You’ve provided the clues that has helped track down PART of the mystery – the part related to “cecapal,” which you believe to be related to my “centlacnepal.”  Here’s what I pulled off of the Nahuatl Dictionary at the Wired Humanities Project (by the way, an indispensable resource for those out there unfamiliar with it: http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/):

ytepanco Francisco yn occecapalal ytepanco Maria = a la linde de Francisco junto a él y por otra a la linde de María
[Source: Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Santa Bárbara, Tamascolco, Tlaxcala, 1598), 290-291.]

Esto corresponde a coeccan, occan, etcétera, en otros dialectos. El sufijo -pal se clasifica generalmente como un sufijo instrumental, y no locativo. Ceccapal es el
"adverbio, 'por un lado'; occápal, 'por dos lados', etcétera. Literalmente, 'en un lugar'."
[Source: Thelma Sullivan, Documentos Tlaxcaltecas del siglo XVI en lengua náhuatl (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1987), 40.]

Still, the mystery is far from solved since, despite my efforts, I can’t find any reference anywhere to “centlacnepal.” Based on what Sullivan seems to be saying, can I assume the “cen-“ is “one” and the “-pal” is the postposition meaning “for, by means of”?  Or is the “cen” in “centlacnepal” unrelated to the “ce-“ in “cecapal” and instead “cem/n: one, entirely, wholly”? How is “-tlac-“ operating here? Is this “tlactli, upper body, torso”?

I’d love to hear others chime in on this one.  John? Dr. Launey? Magnus?

Ben
--
Ben Leeming
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University at Albany
_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl