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Nahuatl Tlahtolkalli Lesson 5
| Nahuatl
Lesson 5. |
|
|
| Napolnemoani |
Vocabulary |
| Nantli
|
mother
|
| Tahtli |
father |
| Tlahtli |
uncle |
|
| Inin |
this |
| Inon |
these |
| Necah
or Nekah |
that/those |
|
| No-
(singular, 1st person) |
my
(Possessive Prefix for nouns, ) |
| Mo-
(singular, 2nd person) |
your
(Possessive Prefix for nouns, ) |
| I-
(singular, 3rd person) |
its/her/his
( Possessive Prefix for nouns,) |
|
| To-
(plural, 1st person) |
our
(Possessive Prefix for nouns, ) |
| Amo-
(plural, 2nd person) |
your
(y'all's) (Possessive Prefix for nouns) |
| In-
or, Im- (plural, 3rd person) |
their
(Possessive Prefix for nouns) |
| -huan
(suffix ending added for plural possessed animate nouns) |
| Tonalpohualli |
calendar
system (count of the days) |
| Xihupohualli |
calendar
system (count of the years) |
| Tonalamatl |
physical
calendar (written on paper) |
| Nemontemi |
the
last 5 days of the year Nemontemi
|
NOTATION:
Boldened (vowel) letters in the vocabulary listing identify long vowels. Underlined
letters represent vowels or consonants that are often omitted when the Nahuatl
stem word is inflected, agglutinated, or derivitized in form (to be explained
in future lessons). The stem portion of a Nahuatl word is the core entity that
may be subject to constituent prefix and suffix modification. The stem of a
noun is readily identitfied from its absolutive suffix that entails -TL, -TLI,
-LI, or -IN. For instance, the stem of MEXIHCATL is MEXIHCA (minus
the absolutive suffix -TL).
Grammar Rule No. 2.
When a possesive prefix is combined with a noun, the noun loses its (absolutive
suffix) ending. For example, when the possesive prefix TO- (our) is combined
with the noun CALLI (house), CALLI loses the "-LI" ending to create
the word TOCAL which means "our house". MO + NANTLI = MONAN (your
mother), I + TOCHTLI = ITOCH (its/her/his rabbit).
Grammar
Rule No. 3
The
possessive prefix "Im" precedes nouns beginning with vowels
or with the letters M, or P; whereas, the use of its alternate form "In"
precedes nouns beginning with consonants, except for the letters M and P.
For Example:
Immil = their field
Imocelo = their jaguar
Impilhuan = their children
Incal = their house
Incitlal = their star
*NOTE:
POSSESSIVE PREFIXES
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 prefix: "no", "mo",
"to", or "amo" (Lockhart 2).
For nouns beginning with long vowel "i," the long vowel "i"
is treated the same as other long vowels and retained, while the "o"
of the possessive prefixes: "no", "mo", "to",
or "amo" is dropped.
Grammar Rule No. 4
The suffix -HUI is added to some possessed nouns with stems ending in a consonant.
Furthermore, -HUI may be added or deleted electively (Sullivan 26).
Example:
nich, nichhui = my maguey fiber
mitz,mitzhui = your obsidian knife
ioquich, ioquichhui = her man
*NOTE:
POSSESSED
NOUNS
In some nouns, an "i" or an "a"
precedes the absolutive suffix as occurs in the words "xochitl"
(flower) and "nacatl" (meat, flesh).
For some (but not all) of these nouns taking this shape, when the absolutive
suffix is dropped and an inflectional affix is added such as occurs when nouns
form the possessed state, the preceding "i"
or "a" of the noun is also dropped, leaving
a stem word like "xoch" for flower (or, e.g. noxoch = my flower) and
"nac" for flesh (or, e.g. nonac = my flesh) (Campbell and Karttunen
1: 15).
Practice:
Nahuatl - to - English:
Nonan
iuan notah iuan tocal
(my mom and my dad and our house)
__________________________________________
Necah coatl iuan motoch iuan amoxochimeh.
(that snake and your rabbit and y'all's flowers)
__________________________________________
Intlah, tomalinal, nahui ocelomeh iuan imamox
(their uncle, our grass, four jaguars and their book)
__________________________________________
Ixoch iuan monan iuan namoxhuan iuan amotah
(her/his flower and your mom and my books and y'all's father)
__________________________________________
Inin atl iuan necah ozomatli iuan icoahuan
(this water and that monkey and their snakes)
__________________________________________
Practice:English
- to - Nahuatl:
My mom and our love and y'all's forces
(Nonan iuan totlazoh iuan amoteohuan)
__________________________________________
That house and our flowers and her/his death
(Necah calli iuan toxochimeh iuan imiquiz)
__________________________________________
Five days and an eagle, your deer and their dog
(macuilli tonaltin iuan cuauhtli, momaza iuan imitzcuin)
_________________________________________
