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Nahuatl Tlahtolkalli Lesson 10
| Nahuatl
Lesson 10. |
|
|
| Vocabulary |
Translation |
| Chantli
(-meh) |
home,
residence |
| Cihuanamic |
wife |
| Oquichtli
(-tin, -meh) |
husband,
man, male |
|
note: "oquichhui" is
the possessed form (see Example 10.2 below) |
| Tepiltzin
|
offspring,
someone wellborn |
| Cihuapilli
(-pipiltin) |
lady |
| -cihuapoh |
female
companion, kinswoman |
| note:
"-cihuapoh" necessarily possessed form |
| Tepilhuan |
one's
children |
| Piya
(vrefl; pret: Pix~Pix) |
it/she/he
protects someone or something, holds |
|
| Conetl
(coconeh) |
child,
offspring of a female |
| Cihuaicniuhtli |
female
sibling or cousin |
| Icniuhtli |
friend,
sibling |
|
|
| Cihtli
(-tin) |
grandmother,
or sister of one's grandfather |
| Colli
(-tin) |
grandfather,
ancestor |
| Caqui
[vt; pret: Cac] |
it/she/he
hears |
| Petlatl
(-meh) |
woven
mat, petate |
POSSESSIVE PRONOMINAL PREFIXES
Noun Possessed Forms
Possessive pronominal
prefixes are one subtype of pronouns in Nahuatl that attach to a noun stem.
Four subtypes of pronominal prefixes that are found in Nahuatl are listed
below (Sullivan 25):
(1) possessive prefixes (definite and indefinite)
(2) subject prefixes
(3) object prefixes
(4) reflexive prefixes
When a possessive pronominal prefix is combined with a noun, the noun loses
its absolutive suffix (Campbell and Karttunen 1: 17). For example, when the
possessive prefix TO- 'OUR' is combined with the noun CALLI 'HOUSE,' CALLI
loses its "-LI" suffix to create the word TOCAL which means "OUR
HOUSE." Other examples include:
MO- + NANTLI = MONAN 'your mother'
I + TOCHTLI = ITOCH 'its/her/his rabbit'
Table 10a and 10b (below) list the definite and indefinite pronominal possessive
prefixes of Nahuatl (Campbell and Karttunen 1: 17).
TABLE 10a. PRONOMINAL POSSESSIVE PREFIXES: Definite Possessive Prefixes
of Nouns, Prepositions, and Adverbs.
| |
Singular |
Translation |
Plural |
Translation |
| First Person |
no-
(*n-)
|
my
|
to-
|
our |
| Second Person |
mo-
|
your
|
amo-
|
y'all's
= you (plural possessive) |
| Third Person |
i-
|
its
|
im-
(in-)
|
their |
TABLE 10b. PRONOMINAL POSSESSIVE PREFIXES: Indefinite Possessive Prefixes
of Nouns, Prepositions, and Adverbs. Please note: "The inanimate indefinite
TLA- is used only with postposition" (Sullivan 25):
| Indefinite Possessive Prefixes |
Singular &
Plural |
Translation |
| indefinite |
te-
|
one's,
someone's, another's (animate)
|
| indefinite (postposition use only) |
tla-
|
something's
(inanimate)
|
In Table 10b, the indefinite
possessors TE- and TLA- are used only when the object is not specified by a
noun or by an independent pronoun in a sentence (Sullivan 33). Furthermore,
nouns that assume the possessor state (English genitive "of" or "-'s")
are coupled with its possessed object noun, which takes on a third person possessive
prefix. This possessed object may precede or follow the possessor as shown in
Example 10.0 below (Sullivan 29).
(EXAMPLE 10.0) GENITIVE PHRASES: Possessor Noun Coupled With Third
Person Possessed Noun (Sullivan 29).
i + petlatl + cihtli = ipetl cihtli 'her-mat grandmother' i.e.,
'grandmother's mat'
teuctli (lord) + i + cihuatl (woman, wife) + -uh (poss. suffix, see Example
10.2) = teuctli icihuauh 'lord its/his-wife' i.e., 'the lord's wife'
In Example 10.1 below, the possessive prefix im- precedes nouns
beginning with vowels or with the labials m, or p; whereas, the use of its alternate
form in- precedes nouns beginning with consonants, except for the labials
m and p.
(EXAMPLE 10.1) THIRD PERSON PLURAL PREFIX ALTERNATE USAGES
immil 'their field'
imocelo 'their jaguar'
impilhuan 'their children'
incal 'their house'
The "O" of the possessive prefixes NO-, MO-, TO-, or AMO- is dropped
when nouns begin with short or long vowels: "O," "E," or
"A." Conversely, for nouns beginning with short "I", the
short "I" is dropped, thus retaining the "O" of the possessive
prefixes NO-, MO-, TO-, or AMO- as follows (Lockhart 2):
no- + icniuhtli = nocniuh 'my friend'
For nouns beginning with long vowel "i," the "i"
is treated the same as other long vowels and retained as long vowels in either
prefix or stem are highly conserved (Campbell and Karttunen 1: 18), while the
short "o" of the possessive prefixes is dropped.
Possessive suffixes include -UH and -HUI in the singular form and -HUAN in the
plural form. The plural suffix -HUAN is applied to all nouns stems that have
a nonpossessive plural form counterpart, which typically involves animates.
The suffix -UH is limited to a low number of noun stems that end in a vowel;
while, the suffix -HUI is limited to some nouns stems ending in a consonant
(Campbell 2: 33). Furthermore, -HUI may be added or deleted electively as shown
in EXAMPLE 10.2 below (Sullivan 26):
(EXAMPLE 10.2) POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES
ichtli 'maguey fiber'; nich, nichhui 'my maguey fiber'
itztli 'obsidian knife'; mitz, mitzhui 'your obsidian knife'
oquichtli 'man'; ioquich, ioquichhui 'her man'
