Honorifics in Mösiehuali

(Tetelcingo Nahuatl)

In Mösiehuali, when you speak to or about an adult, you generally need to use honorific forms (also called reverential or respect forms). There are also extra- or ultra-honorific forms which allow speakers to express unusually high degrees of respect on certain occasions, for instance when speaking to god-parental relatives or in prayer to God.

• Second person honorifics
• Third person honorifics
• Third person extra-honorifics

• Pronouns
• Possessives and postpositions
• Nouns

There are recordings of many of the examples, marked . The sound files average about 50Kb in size.

Honorifics on verbs

Second person honorifics on verbs

Second person honorific forms on verbs are generally formed by a combination of the reflexive prefix mo- with a causative or applicative suffix such as -tia or -lia. These combinations produce a meaning something like cause yourself to do it (causative) or do it for yourself (applicative), rather than the non-honorific (and simpler) do it. Sometimes a different verb stem with a causative meaning is used instead of a causative suffix, like take/carry youself for the non-honorific go.

When the respected second person is subject of an intransitive verb, the causative suffix is usually the one that is used.

For instance:

When the respected second person is the subject of a transitive verb, an applicative is generally used instead of a causative, though some verbs use a causative anyway. If the object is third person singular (and sometimes if it is plural) no object prefix other than mo- is used, but if it is first or second person (and sometimes when it is third plural) the object prefix precedes mo-.

When the respected second person is the object of a transitive verb, the same combination of mo- and a causative or applicative is used as if that person were subject, but the object prefix mitz- (for singulars) or nemiech- (for plurals) appears, preceding mo-. (The use of nemiech- prevents using a subject prefix, so where it occurs the subject must be deduced from the context.)

Since the reflexive prefix mo- is used to mark respect in all these forms, the problem comes up of how to express reflexivity. It is done by utilizing, instead of a causative or applicative, the honorific suffix -tzinoa (a combination of honorific -tzi(n) with the verbalizer -oa), which when combined with mo- means honorific reflexive.

Third person honorifics on verbs

When the subject of a verb is a third person who should be spoken of with respect, the verb usually carries an honorific suffix -hua or -lo, or sometimes -o. (These suffixes produced passive verbs in Classical Nahuatl, and there are still traces of that usage in some corners of the Mösiehuali lexicon.) As the examples will illustrate, the vowel i appears in its "long" form i when it precedes -hua or -lo, and o similarly appears in its "long" form u when it precedes -lo. Some forms are irregular in other ways.

The hu of -hua is not written when it follows o, even though it is pronounced (as can be heard in the sound file for biloa below.)

Especially in tenses where plurality is not marked by a suffix, it is normal for plural honorifics to be reduplicated. Thus, for instance, nejnemoa means they (respected ones) live, niechijijtalo means they (respected ones) see me.

In the future, the preterite, and the subjunctive, the third person honorific is sometimes formed with -hua or -lo, with the affixes appropriate to the tense or mood. Nevertheless, it is also usual to use the normal plural non-honorific form, with an honorific singular meaning.

For third person honorific objects special prefixes are used: tie- singular, and tie-in/m- plural. (Tie- comes from the prefix tē- non-specified human object which appears in Classical Nahuatl and in other modern variants, in/m- is the same element that occurs in the non-honorific object prefix qu-in/m- them).

Reflexive third person honorifics use the object prefix ne-, which in Classical Nahuatl and other variants means non-specified reflexive/reciprocal human object, and still has traces of that meaning in mösiehuali. (E.g. ne-maca, with maca give, doesn't mean (honorable person) give himself/herself (something) but rather sell, that is exchange with someone merchandise for money). Since the subject (like the object) is an honored third person, the appropriate suffix (-lo or -hua) is used.

Third person extra-honorifics in verbs

Extra-honorific third person forms can be produced according to the same rules as for second person, but without the second person subject prefix ti- or ne(n)-.

Ultra-honorific forms can be made from combinations of that pattern with -lo. Consider the following examples, built on the stem chiwa do:

Other honorifics

Pronouns

The second and third person independent pronouns have honorific forms. Here they are presented next to the non-honorific forms for easy comparison. It will be noted that the morpheme -tzi(n) honorific, diminutive appears in the honorific forms.

The syllable jua that occurs in these forms could also be (and has sometimes been) written juö; the phonetic difference between a and ö following [w] is very slight.

Possessives and postpositional objects

In Mösiehuali (as in Nahuatl generally) the possessive pronouns and the pronominal objects of postpositions are formally identical. The honorific forms are again presented together with the corresponding non-honorifics. Once again -tzi(n) appears in some of the honorifics. (The noun stem cal house is used to illustrate the use of possessives, and the postposition -pan in, on to illustrate the use of postpositional objects.)

Nouns

Some Mösiehuali nouns can take -tzi(n) with an honorific meaning (though on others it will have a diminutive meaning or both). For example, tlöcatl means man, and tlöcatzintli means lord, dignitary, gentleman; teopixqui is priest, and teopixcötzintli is (respected) priest. Some words always take this suffix. For example, you would always say nocultzi my grandfather or nosijtzi my grandmother; *nocul or *nosis would sound terribly rude or uncouth.

For naming adult men one often uses the almost prefixal word ru, which comes from the Spanish don. For instance,  ru Mönobiel Sir Manuel, Mr. Manuel corresponds to the Spanish don Manuel. The names of adult women (with the exception of one's own wife) normally bear the honorific suffix -tzi(n), for instance  Xohuanajtzi, from the Spanish (doña) Juana, means Lady Jane.

--David Tuggy

The Mösiehuali speaker whose voice is heard in the examples is Trinidad Ramírez Amaro.

References

For a more technical and extensive description of the Mösiehuali honorific system, see the article "Nahuatl honorifics" by Richard S. Pittman. Also see the section on honorifics in David Tuggy's grammatical sketch (1979:94-102), and the brief description in Tuggy 1981:516-519.

The Vocabulario Mexicano de Tetelcingo gives a second and a third person honorific form for each verb it lists which takes a human subject. It gives a brief explanation of the honorific system on pages 271-272.

Jane and Kenneth Hill's (1978) article describes honorific usage in Nahuatl-speaking communities near the Malinche volcano (states of Puebla and Tlaxcala.)

See also:

• A greeting in Mösiehuali
• See how to build the following long word in Mösiehuali: nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemisquiöni.
• Mösiehuali vowels
• Mösiehuali consonants
• Spanish borrowings in Mösiehuali